My Pretend Boyfriend
by Xmarksthespot
Summary: Sakura's relatives are coming to visit. The problem? They don't know her parents enrolled her in a ninja school. To all Haruno's, being a ninja is frowned upon. So when Sasuke shows up at her doorstep for a mission, what does she do? Kiss him.
1. Chapter 1

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**Disclaimer: Don't own.**

**XxXx**

"Sakura...there's something we have to tell you," her Mother spoke with a kind and gentle voice and faced the seventeen year old. "Your Aunt, Uncle and cousin are visiting us for a few weeks."

Sakura made a face. She knew they were family, but she was never fond of them, especially her cousin who was one of those girls who constantly showed off anything that could be called a _talent_. She was never fond of her cousin when she was little, often feeling like a failure around the bragger.

"And they're bringing your father's mother." Her Mother eyed her Father who was back in the kitchen.

_Damn_, Sakura muttered. Her Grandmother could be summed up with two words: complainer and strict. She would complain about everything, even the color of the walls of their living room or how the desserts were too sweet or how Sakura shouldn't be having long hair. Not only that, but Sakura felt that the older woman was very traditional, which limited Sakura from doing many things every time she saw her. However, it had been _years_ since Sakura had last seen her.

Sakura was secretly wishing for a lot of missions with her team so she would have to leave the house.

"But," her Mother started again. "There's something you should know about Harunos. You see...we're the first family to ever place our child in a ninja school. And in the Haruno family's eyes, being a ninja is kind of..."

"Frowned upon." Her Father finished, coming from the kitchen and into the living room where she and her Mom were.

"What?" Sakura exclaimed. She clearly didn't understand what was so wrong about being a ninja. "If it weren't for us ninjas, their asses would've been kicked by now!"

"Sakura, language," her Mother warned. She quickly took a sip from her cup of tea.

"Anyway," her Father started, "do you think you could pretend to be _normal_ for a few weeks? You can do what you always do at the hospital and those meetings with your team, just make sure they don't see or suspect anything."

Sakura gave a big exhale. "Yeah, sure. I'll try."

XxXx

"Well, hello dear!" Her Aunt had said as she threw herself at the young girl, squeezing her until Sakura's parents came into the room. The woman had short curly hair, wearing a sweater and floral skirt – an appearance _very_ unsuitable for her.

Sakura kindly told her hello and went out the door to where the car was, helping her Uncle with the luggage.

"You don't have to carry that," her Uncle said. The bald man looked at her nicely and grabbed hold of the suitcase, obviously having difficulty carrying it. "It's very heavy."

Sakura shook her head. "Oh, no. It's okay." She placed her hand onto the handle, pushing her Uncle's hand aside and lifted it easily, carrying it into the house. Sakura had no trouble with carrying it up steps of the porch and into the door.

"My word, Sakura! How can you carry such a heavy thing – and with one arm too!" Her Uncle yelled from behind.

Quickly, Sakura froze. She bit her lip, wondering of an excuse to tell him. "I...workout. At the gym, a lot."

Her Uncle stared at her and nodded, bringing in the rest of the luggage to the guest bedroom upstairs.

Suddenly, there was a loud, exaggerated gasp. "Oh, Sakura honey! What happened to your hair? It's all short and choppy." There was a disgust in her tone of voice when she described the pink locks.

Sakura rolled her eyes and turned around, bringing a fake smile to her face and approached the elderly woman. "Hello Grandmother." She hugged her as a small tight line formed across her Grandma's rouge lips when the two hugged. Of course, the woman let go of the hug quickly, smoothing out the golden sleeves of her kimono after and pushing the grey strands of hair back behind her ear since a few had fallen out of the tight bun she kept it in.

"Sakura!" Her Mother called out from upstairs. "Is it okay if Yuki stays in your room?"

The pink headed girl eyed at her cousin who made herself comfortable on the cream colored sofa instead of helping everybody else unpack.

"Yeah," she yelled, but muttered, "great."

She ran upstairs, helping her parents with the guest bedrooms. It took a few hours, but they'd finally finished. A sigh passed her lips as she folded the blankets.

"Sakura! A ninja is looking for you!" Her cousin yelled from downstairs, loud enough for everybody to hear.

"A_ ninja_?" She heard her grandmother gasp, followed by the whole family stampeding down the stairs.

"Dammit," Sakura muttered, chasing after them.

When she had reached to the bottom of the staircase, her family was crowding around Sasuke Uchiha.

Her Grandmother glanced at his headband with the Leaf symbol on it. "You _are_ a ninja!"

Again, Sakura could hear the word being emphasized in the old woman's tone. Furrowing her brows, she wasn't sure what to do. However, a thought came to mind and quickly, without thinking, Sakura ran towards the puzzled Uchiha and planted her lips on his.

He tried pushing her away, but her hold on his body was too tight. Finally, their kiss ended and Sasuke stood there, silent and confused.

"Sasuke...kun! It's been so long since I've seen you." Sakura's voice reminded him of her old fangirl self. "Oh, I'm sorry," Sakura started again. She turned to face her relatives and slightly clenched her teeth. "This is my...boyfriend, Sasuke."

"Wh–" He was interrupted by Sakura's elbow hitting his ribs.

"Your boyfriend is aninja?" It was Yuki who said it this time. There were a lot of gasps following after – her Grandmother, of course.

Sakura nodded. "Yeah. Mom, I'm going to go out with Sasuke-kun, okay?" She left, dragging Sasuke out the door before anybody could say anything.

XxXx

By the time the pair had met up with the rest of team 7, the house was out of sight and Sakura, who was _still_ holding on Sasuke's arm, had finally calmed down.

Sasuke quickly jerked his arm away from her. "What the hell was all that about?" He yelled, face still blushing red from the kiss.

"And what are you wearing?" Naruto joined in, stepping towards them along with Kakashi.

The three men stared at her; she was wearing large hoop earrings, a tunic with brown leggings underneath and flats. Definitely unsuitable ninja wear. Her fingernails were also painted a variety of bright colors.

Sakura looked to the side, avoiding their eyes. "I have family visiting. They all think being a ninja is a bad thing and they always thought my parents enrolled me in a regular school.

"So, for the time being, I have to seem _normal_ around them." She glared at Sasuke. "Until _you_ showed up with your freaking headband, pouch full of weapons and your stupid sword strapped at your waist!"

He gave her a face. "So you just _kissed_ me because of that?"

Kakashi's and Naruto's eyes widened, face full of shock.

"You...you kissed him?" Naruto stammered.

Kakashi gave a small chuckle. "Oh, how you kids grow up so fast."

Sakura crossed her arms. "Look, it was the _only_ thing I could come up with at the time without them finding out." She clapped her hands together and turned to the Uchiha. "Will you please, please, _please_ be my fake ninja boyfriend, Sasuke?" She begged. "They already think you're my boyfriend anyway."

"That's because that's what you told them!" He exclaimed.

"Just do it, teme." Naruto told him. "I mean, all you have to do is pick her up whenever we have missions and take that pole out of your ass when you talk to her in front of her family."

"..Fine," Sasuke grumbled. "I'll be your boyfriend for a few weeks."

* * *

A/N: I just found out that I accidentally replaced the first chapter with the second chapter when I had editted this, so this is technically an uneditted version. Please excuse my mistakes and I'll try to fix up some things as soon as possible.


	2. Chapter 2

**Inspiration:** Because the more promises you keep, the more interesting things get. ;)

**Most of you said that Sasuke didn't seem ooc to you...Trust me, as the chapters go by, he'll get more and more out of character.**

**Note (one of my reviewers asked me this so I wanted to point it out) : **Why aren't her family's reaction _that_ bad even though they despise ninjas? Because like regular parents who find out their children is dating, they're hoping for the best: that the child will eventually break up. That way, they can get what they want without having it be their fault. :)

**Another note:** Technically, this fic really isn't AU cause I'm thinking for whats gonna happen for the next few chapters, I'll make it so that..it sets in a time when Sasuke comes back from Sound or where ever he is right now in the manga. Yup. Team Hebi shall not exist in this fic though...Either that or Sasuke abandoned them...Yeah.

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx**

* * *

"Now that we have that settled," Kakashi started, putting the orange book in his hand away. He looked at the three in front of him– now all grown up and at his eye level. "I know you're almost adults and that I'm no longer your sensei, but I've called Team 7 here today to inform you about the event taking place in five weeks.

"The _Festival of Nations_ is coming up soon. It happens every few years and villages from many countries are coming since Konohagure is hosting it this year. During this time, the entire village will be set up so that it's like a regular festival; there will be people wearing kimonos, lanterns being lit up, etcetera.

"However, the council and the Hokage are suspecting unusual activities from the Hidden Mist Village– one of the villages that are coming here during the event. So far, we've only heard of the Mizukage and a few of his guards coming, but we're still not sure how many mist nins there are going to be in the village at that time.

"You three and a few more will have intercoms and will be watching over the village to find any unusual occurrences"

The three nodded in unison.

"Alright," Kakashi started again. "Three weeks from today, we are to meet at the Hokage's office to get more updates on this event."

After a long silence, Sasuke was the first to speak.

"Hn, if this is over, I'm leaving." He turned around and began to walk home.

"Wait, just a minute, Sasuke." Kakashi stopped the Uchiha.

Sasuke didn't move, still facing away from the group and only looking at the clouds in the sky that were tinted orange and purple from the sunset.

"You're Sakura's boyfriend, aren't you? Walk her home." Kakashi took out his book again, hiding the faint grin under his mask.

Sakura blushed as Sasuke grunted, turning around and passing Sakura and started heading towards her house.

"Oh and do you think you can tell everyone you know not to treat me like a ninja?" Sakura asked, receiving a nod from Naruto and Kakashi. The rosette quickly turned around and caught up to Sasuke who was waiting at the end of the street for her.

XxXx

When Sakura entered her room, there was a spare mattress next to her bed with multiple bags on it. She had also noticed that half of her desk was cleared and replaced with hair spray, perfume, jewelry and other accessories.

Her brow arched. "Yuki," she guessed correctly.

Saskura opened her closet, inspecting every detail of change made by her cousin. Luckily, no one had noticed the large bag under a pile of Sakura's clothes in the corner. The bag was filled with all of her weapons, her headband and all of her belongings that involved being a Shinobi.

"Sakura! Dinner." Her mother yelled from downstairs.

She ran down the steps, craving for the food she could smell from the second floor.

At the table sat everybody, waiting for her (her Grandma had the same face that she did when she found out about Sakura's _boyfriend_). Diner quickly started silently until her aunt spoke up.

"So I heard you have a job, Sakura. What do you do?"

Sakura finished chewing and swallowed before she answered. "I am a doctor at the Konoha hospital."

Her uncle gasped. "A doctor? Really? That must be hard seeing as how you don't have chakra and most of your patients are ninjas."

Jade eyes peered up as she washed the food down with a glass of water. When she set it down, Sakura didn't say anything. She wanted every answer to be well explained as possible without it being too stretched so they wouldn't have any more questions.

"Well," she started, "actually, I just treat the villagers and if there are any wounds that don't need chakra, I treat those too. However, um.. Sometimes I inspect them, find out their injuries and tell the medics _with_ chakra what to do, like the ones that are still in training. It was required to learn a few things about chakra systems and injuries shinobi deal with in my...med classes."

Her aunt nodded. "That's completely reasonable seeing as how you live in this village."

After her mother brought out the desserts – her grandmother muttered a few comments on its' taste, as always– her uncle brought up another conversation.

"Didn't you say you workout, Sakura?"

Again, Sakura felt pressured, being asked all those questions. It had been almost thirteen years since she'd last saw them.

"Uh..Yeah. Just to keep myself fit, I go to the gym."

"Really?" Yuki spoke up. "I box a lot. I actually brought an extra pair of gloves. I'm an expert back home. Want me to show you some things later?"

Sakura nodded, secretly knowing that her cousin only brought an extra pair of gloves as a reason to show off her talents. She remembered when they were younger, Yuki was only 7 – Sakura is two years younger– and brought her extremely expensive violin to play songs for the family she had learned the week before.

Luckily, she gave a few excuses after dinner so she didn't have to stay in the living room with them.

XxXx

The next day, Sakura woke up extra early, climbing over the mattress and changed into her hospital uniform. Cracking her knuckles on her way out, Sakura couldn't wait to finally use her energy for something useful.

"Miss Haruno! We've got an emergency in room 201," a nurse said as soon as Sakura stepped into the building.

Sakura quickly rushed into the room, opening the door, expecting blood all over the floor. However, it was only two males, still trying to beat each other even in their current condition.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't my ninja boyfriend and his idiot friend."

"Hey Sakura!" Naruto yelled, pushing Sasuke's leg away from him.

Sasuke didn't reply and twisted Naruto's one arm, causing the blond to jerk his arm back and kick the charcoal haired boy.

"Dammit, this is a hospital!" Sakura yelled. "Either you stop so I can look at your wounds or you leave so you can continue to beat the crap out of each other!"

The two eventually quieted down, climbing on their own hospital bed as Sakura looked through their files and at Naruto's wounds.

"Broken right arm, twisted ankle," she listed, "a deep cut in the leg, burning on the chest..." She quickly wrote down the details on her clipboard, getting up afterwards and sat by Sasuke's bed.

"Take off your shirt and pants, leave your underwear on," she instructed.

"What?" He spat out.

She rolled her eyes, not sure who she'd rather be with, her family or around him. "I can tell by the stains on your shirt that you have a lot of injuries on your chest. There's also a huge tear on your thigh. You're bleeding right now as we're speaking. " She pointed to the trail of blood next to his bed. "Now take off your clothes."

Naruto chuckled.

"Naruto, the only reason I'm not treating your wounds now is because you heal fast. But if I finish Sasuke before you finish healing, you're going to have to do the same. However, I have a few appointments soon so I'll send in Takashi to check your wounds."

Naruto froze. "Isn't Takashi that perverted homosexual medic?"

Sakura quickly nodded, hands glowing green on some of Sasuke's cuts.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. "Miss Haruno, your grandmother is here."

"Urgh," she growled, stopping the treatment. Before she had a chance to stand up to leave the room, the door had already opened, revealing an old woman wearing another one of her kimonos.

"I'll send Takashi to heal the both of you," she whispered, receiving curses from both of them. "Hi, Grandma!" She pulled the woman outside the door, leaving her two teammates behind.

"So what were you just doing?"

The two were walking down the hallway – not as busy as usual– when her Grandmother asked her the question.

"Just ...stitching them up," Sakura replied. "Sasuke-kun and Naruto just got back from training and they kinda roughed each other up a bit." She glanced at the clock hanging on the wall, checking to see what time it was.

"Sasuke..." She said through her gritted teeth. "Isn't he the one you're dating?"

She nodded.

The fragile hand was playing with the sleeves of the other arm. Her Grandma's lips pressed together and then opened again. "You should invite him to dinner tonight. I'm sure your mother wouldn't mind setting an extra spot. Besides, from my chat with your parents yesterday, it seems no one really knows anything about this... boyfriend of yours."

Sakura gave a small smile. "I'll...ask him. But Grandma, we're really busy right now so I can't stay and talk." Sakura waved, running off to Sasuke's and Naruto's room, remembering that no only did she leave those two alone again, but she never got another medic to check their wounds.

"I am _so_ sorry!" She yelled, coming back to Sasuke's side and checking his injuries, beginning the treatment again.

"Hn, you know, being a medic and all, you should really take better care of your patients." He never moved his eyes to face her and stared straight ahead of him.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Again, I'm _so_ sorry, Your Majesty," she said sarcastically. "To make it up to you, will you please come to my house for dinner tonight?"

"Oh, is that a date I'm hearing?" Naruto laughed.

Quickly healing his chest, she replied, "No, my Grandma says she and the rest of the family want to get to know him better." She looked up at Sasuke. "So you better listen to Naruto's advice and take that stick out of your ass when you talk tonight."

Sasuke gawked at her. "I didn't even say I was going to come."

Sakura quickly jotted down a few notes, finishing with Sasuke and went over to sit next to Naruto, seeing if his wounds had finished healing. "Awe, _honey_! Won't you come?" She gave a small smirk, sensing her new nickname for him made him shiver.

"Urgh, fine, I'll see if I can. Just don't call me_ that _again."

* * *

**I want to thank all my reviewers for the previous chapter. I was jumping up and down when I read them xD**

**Sasuke seems to be giving in too much. Hmmm...Oh well, he's going to meet the family next chapter...mwuahaha**

**I shall update next Friday, so please review. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Inspiration for this chapter:** Parents and their nosiness.

**Almost forgot to update today. But HA, it's only 9pm here which means its still Fridayyyyy! xD. Sorry if it's late in your timezone.**

**Warning: **People being major pain in the donkey butt. Yeah. You'll hate them by the sentence.

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx**

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_Ding dong._

"I'll get it!" Sakura had on her fuzzy slippers when she went to the door so it made a flapping noise with each step she took.

It was a huge surprise to her, opening the wooden door and finding Sasuke Uchiha, dressed in his usual clothing – training clothes– but with a bouquet of flowers.

Her brow rose.

"Flowers, courtesy of your friend," he muttered, passing the flowers to her and turning his head around.

Sakura looked over his shoulder, finding Ino and Naruto hiding behind a few bushes, snickering. They were making hand motions, telling him to go into the house. Another motion to tell Sasuke to plant a kiss on her.

"They're really enjoying this, aren't they?"

Sasuke nodded.

"Sorry. Anyway," she cleared her throat, "come in." Sakura stepped aside, clearing the entrance way for him to walk in. He took off his shoes and politely looked up to be greeted by her parents. She closed the door afterwards, nervous about the many questions she knew her family were going to ask him.

Her Grandmother gave a strict face, unemotional as Sasuke normally was. In fact, her Aunt and Uncle also had the same face. They obviously did not like his appearance – headband, weapon holster, a few scratches on his face and messy clothes.

Luckily, her Mother stepped in, inviting Sasuke into the dining room and pulling out a chair for him to sit. She quickly turned around, asking if he was thirsty but poured a drink anyway when he declined.

"Mrs..Haruno. It's okay. Thank you."

Sasuke was very polite, Sakura noted. Often when he would speak to adults, namely the Hokage or other jounins, he wasn't the type to talk. Either that, or he'd curse furiously at them. This brought a small smile to the young woman, sighing with relief.

Dinner quickly started and they all ate quietly. Expectantly to Sakura, her Aunt was the first to speak.

"So, Sasuke. How did you meet Sakura?"

Sasuke silently gulped before answering as Sakura tilted her head over to look at the man next to her, wondering how he was going to reply.

"I met her...a few years ago actually. When we were younger. It was..during an invasion in this village and I saw that she was in trouble. I came and rescued her."

Sakura really wanted to laugh out loud, seeing as how Sasuke had thought of a storyline and everything about the two of them for her relatives to hear.

"When did you two start dating?" It was her cousin this time.

He quickly chewed the food and placed the chopsticks down on the table. "Well...um..I came back from a mission two months ago and I needed serious medical treatment. Sakura was sent to check up on my wounds and–"

Something seemed strange to Sakura as she listened to Sasuke's tale. "Didn't Sasuke come back from a mission two months ago too?" She muttered quietly– luckily, no one heard. "Wasn't I assigned to be his medic...?"

"–and I really wanted her to stay in my hospital room so I kept making excuses to keep her–"

Her chin rested on her palm. "Didn't Sasuke continuously cry out pain even though there was nothing wrong with him?" One of Sakura's qualities which the Hokage greatly admired was her good memory. It helped her a lot, especially while working in the hospital since she remembered all her patients as well as their medical conditions or what she had done to them on that day.

"–So I asked my teammate to train with me the next day so I could go back to the hospital."

Her eyes widened. "Sasuke came in the next day too!"

"What's that, dear?"

Sakura's pupils shot up, moving back and forth from one end of the table to the other. Her hands got a little sweaty, noticing her Grandma's piercing eyes at her and she wondered if anybody heard what she had just said. Shaking her head, she murmured, "I'm just saying it's a little embarrassing, what Sasuke-kun is about to say."

Sasuke looked downwards and his gaze followed the patterns of the tablecloth. Giving an exhale, he started talking again (Sakura could tell by his tired look that he did _not_ like talking). "I told her that a few of my friends and I were going to the training fields to have a picnic the next day and invited her to come. When she came, I was actually alone there and I asked her out."

Dinner continued silently afterwards– for Sakura. Her family (even her parents) took interest in Sasuke and asked him many questions, preventing him from eating the dinner.

"Here's dessert!" Her Mother sang out, bringing a large chocolate cake and set it in front of Sasuke.

Sasuke attempted to say something, but it was Sakura who waved her hands in the air.

"Mom! I told you, Sasuke-kun doesn't eat sweets!"

Her Aunt made a face. "What? You don't eat desserts?"

Sasuke shook his head slowly.

Her Aunt's reaction to his reply was if it was a crime not to eat sweets.

"Do you mind if I ask what your parents do?" It was the first time her Grandmother had spoken since dinner started. She was clearly taking her time and thinking of questions to ask the boy. She waited for his reply, eyes staring across the table – rarely blinking – and taking small bites of the piece of cake on her spoon.

"You don't have to answer, " Sakura whispered, then faced her Grandmother and gave a nervous laugh. "Grandma, Sasuke-kun doesn't really like to talk about his parents...so um.." She tried to change the subject, but the elderly woman did not want to.

"It's rude to answer for someone, Sakura. Now, Sasuke, even if they do...bad things, our impression of you isn't going to change."

Inside, Sasuke really wanted the woman to shut up. However, he remembered at a young age being taught to respect the elderly – even if he doesn't show it to many people – and decided to answer, hoping it was near the end of their nosiness. "They died when I was young."

"Oh, you poor boy. How about your Aunt or Uncle? The relatives who took care of you when your parents were gone?"

How Sakura's Grandmother was pure evil, Sasuke could only think. He realized that she was trying to ask deeper questions, questions that weren't easy to lie about and could effect a person drastically. With a deep breath, he leaned back into his chair.

Sakura could sense his uneasiness and spoke up again to keep him from saying anything he didn't want to, but it was Sasuke who interrupted her, saying it was okay.

"They died too."

Even during this awkward phase, her Grandmother did not back down.

"That's terrible! Did they ever find who did it? Did they catch him? And how about any siblings, like an older brother or somethin–"

"Stop it, Grandma!" Sakura stood from her seat, slamming her hands on the table. "You clearly know about the Uchiha Massacre, so stop asking him questions. Come on, Sasuke." She lead the Uchiha, who had also gotten up – relieved – to the front door.

The two were just outside of the house when they stopped. "I'm really sorry about that, Sasuke." She bowed her head down apologetically.

"It doesn't matter," Sasuke sighed, giving a small smirk. "Who knew that woman could be so wicked?"

Sakura laughed. "Yeah, we were all relieved to know my Dad didn't get those genes." She gave a slight grin, looking up at Sasuke. "Uh, Sasuke?"

"Aa?"

"That story you told them, about you asking me out at the training grounds after your mission.."

"Hn, Naruto helped me make that up. We figured they would ask me that."

"I see...well, thanks for coming and again, I'm sorry." She waved him good bye.

After he waved and left, Sakura turned around and walked towards her house. "Made it up, huh?"

XxXx

_**Two months ago.**_

"_Uhh, Sakura?"_

"_Yeah, Sasuke?"_

"_We're going to the training field tomorrow. You haven't been with us for a while, wanna come?"_

_Sakura found it strange that Sasuke was the one asking instead of Naruto. She shook her head. "Sorry, I have to work that time. Maybe another time, kay?"_

"_Aa."_

* * *

**So Sasuke likes Sakura...mhm...**

**Thank you SO much for your reviews last chapter. You guys are really too kind.**

**I shall be updating again next Friday. Urgh. School.**

**Please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter's inspiration: ...I don't know...this is more extended to the previous chapter, but because it was getting too long, I made it a separate chapter.**

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx**

* * *

"I think that boy is okay, despite being a ninja. But being in his family and all, he was probably forced to be one. You know, if his family died earlier, maybe he would be a wealthy businessman now or whatever that doesn't include knives and blood. I mean," her Grandmother started ranting. She was sitting on a chair while Sakura and her aunt washed the dishes. "He's polite and–" She was cut off.

"Why did you ask him all those questions?" Sakura was really pissed. She didn't like how her Grandma tried to pressure people with personal questions.

"Tsk. You've still got a lot to learn, dear. People like him who've gone through so much tend to...behave differently. I asked him all that to see if he was going...to snap, or something."

Sakura couldn't believe what she was hearing. "If he had anger management problems, I wouldn't be dating him!"

Suddenly, the phone rang and Sakura took it as an opportunity to leave the room her Grandma was in.

"Sakura?" It was Shikamaru's voice.

"Yeah?"

"We've got an emergency. Meet us at the Hokage's office now."

Sakura quickly hung up the phone and took off her slippers, placing shoes on after.

"Where are you going at this hour?" Her uncle asked, peaking away from the television screen.

"Hospital emergency." She lied and ran out the front door.

"Let me give you a ride the–" Her Uncle looked out the door, only to find there was no one there. "Huh...fast girl."

XxXx

Team 7, Shikamaru and Neji were already there by the time Sakura had entered the office.

"Uh..hi." Her voice came out cracked, being nervous around Sasuke. They had just saw each other almost an hour ago and the rosette felt embarrassed talking to him.

He didn't reply with words and just grunted. Naruto, however, cheerfully greeted her.

"Good, you're all here. Follow me." Shikamaru lead them all to another room where a man was tied up and beaten very badly.

The room was quite dark with only a few lights lighting the area; they were flickering. Although with no vents or windows in sight, the room was very cold, giving many of them goose bumps.

"Who's he?" Naruto asked, eyeing the suspicious man who refused to look up when the five entered.

Tsunade was already in the room, as well as Ibiki, the interrogator.

The blond woman's face was stern. "He was found here in our village disguised as a regular citizen. We've found out he's a spy for the Mist Village and can only assume there are many more like him nearby."

A few ANBU guards came, suddenly taking the man away.

Tsunade continued. "We're going to lock him up and find out some more information. We're also guessing that there are more disguised as the villagers so it would be easier to try to get in and out of the village, possibly with excuses such as visiting a sick friend from another village or going home to family within the Fire Country." She gave Sakura a glance before continuing.

"Sakura, since you're already...well dressed for being a regular citizen, I'm going to put you and your...boyfriend," she smirked slightly, "undercover as well. Just go out frequently and watch out for any suspicious behavior between them."

Sasuke and Sakura nodded.

"Now, I've decided to make a few more rules concerning the main gates. Unless given my permission, no one will be allowed to leave the village, understand? And as for Neji and Naruto, I have a job for the both of you as well as a few others tomorrow morning."

All nodded and disappeared from the room.

XxXx

"Did you fix that hospital problem, Sakura?" The bald headed man asked.

Sakura slowly nodded. "Actually, I ran into the Hokage. Apparently, some things are going on here in the village so even though you planned to only stay here for three weeks, I'm afraid that's going to be delayed. You're going to have to stay here for a minimum of five to six weeks."

"What?" Her Mom spat out, not liking what she was hearing.

"Oh, that'll be okay!" Her optimistic Aunt patted Sakura's Mother's back.

Sakura sighed, climbing the stairs and into her room, checking her calender that was hung on the side wall. "Damn. The Nation's Festival..." Biting her lip, she wondered what she was going to have to do with her annoying relatives and her constant missions during the festival. Shaking her head, she only wanted to flop on her bed and rest.

XxXx

The women of the family were out, grocery shopping in the marketplace.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura ran up to the startled Uchiha and pressed her lips casually on his cheeks – he blushed slightly.

"Tch, that boy is everywhere now," her Grandmother complained.

Sakura leaned towards Sasuke. "Found anything yet?" She whispered.

He replied, "No, no one suspicious yet. How about you?"

"No, but we're going a few blocks down the road soon. It's not as crowded there so it'll be easier to see people there."

Sasuke nodded. "I'll be watching on the side then." He backed off for a moment, hesitating, but then kissed her on the forehead, knowing her Aunt's piercing eyes were still on the couple and headed off.

Her heart started to race even after he left, but she didn't have time to think before her Aunt went up to her.

"He's been meeting you a lot isn't he?" Her Aunt said.

Giving a shy laugh, Sakura responded with, "We ...spend a lot of time together since we never know when or how long his next mission is." She smiled brightly, secretly wanting to laugh at the great acting she and Sasuke had been preforming.

"And, it's making the fangirls _extra_ mad.." she giggled inwardly, noticing the group of girls frowning at her in the corner of her eye.

Gently touching her forehead, there were small tints of red on her cheeks again. She was _kind of_ getting used to his kisses. After all, according to Sasuke's story, they've been dating for about two months now, so it would only make sense to be that close – they just rarely (mostly never, _rarely_ is during extreme moments when the relatives seem to realize they never kiss like the time he was introduced) kiss on the lips.

Turning around, she followed her family but turned to the side to watch the people passing by. None of them seemed to suspicious (most of them very familiar since she grew up in that area), so Sakura only wondered if there was just one man who was a spy.

Shrugging it off, Sakura walked off. There was just too much going on her head – especially the coincidental story that Sasuke gave the previous night and what really happened a few months back. _And_ the fact that her chest would beat irregularly every time she saw him since the dinner.

Closing her eyes, Sakura tried to calm down her breaths. "I should _not_ be feeling this..." she muttered to herself. "I mean, the last time my heart was beating like this was when I was..." her eyes widened. "...I need to talk to Ino."

* * *

**Urgh, not much going on here.**

**I _think_ it'll be better in the next chapter...I actually don't remember what I wrote in it, but I think its the one where Sasuke is terribly OOC. **

**Anyway, thank you _so_ much for your reviews last chapter! It really means a lot!**

**A/N: **I have a poll on my profile, asking what day of the week you'd like me to update. I know some of you are busy on Fridays and such, so go on there and vote if you'd like a different day!

**Please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Inspiration for this chapter: Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. Seriously. I mean it. Read and you'll see.**

**A/N: **A few things have been happening here at home, like my teachers giving us a load of homework even the second week of school just finished...urgh. But the worst part is, I've found out someone who I love and care so much has cancer.

She's currently at the hospital right now and I'm worrying like heck. A lot of things are also happening with my family (feuds and such) and it's just adding to the stress.

I do have the next chapter of this typed up, but depending on what happens, I'm not sure if I _can_ remember to update next week (I'm sorry!) or update my other fics either.

**On the happy note...I'd also like to take this time to say WE REACHED OVER A HUNDRED REVIEWS. I would like to THANK YOU guys SO much! _Each_ and _every_ one of your reviews mean so much to me, even if its just a small word like "update"; it still means a lot!**

**Anyway, I should stop this extremely long author's note thing..yeah. Oh and Sasuke. OOC. A lot. Yeah. You should be able to tell that from my 'inspiration' note.**

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx**

* * *

"So, Sakura...I heard you got a boyfriend."

"Ino, you didn't _just_ hear, you were one of the first to know about it."

The blond laughed, crossing her legs when she sat on her leather sofa. It was a sleep over and Ino's friends were invited to her house.

"You and Sasuke-kun look so cute together though – always smooching and holding hands..."

"And it's killing me!"

Tenten joined in, "You don't like being that close to the Uchiha?"

Sakura sighed. "It's been two weeks now and it's really annoying, only kissing him when my family's around and then it wastes so much time and–"

Ino interrupted. "Wastes what time?"

"To discuss about our missions."

"B..But Sakura," Hinata gave a troubled expression. "You...s..said you didn't like the fact that the _only_ time you two can kiss is when your relatives are around." She tried to hide her smile by raising her hand to cover her mouth.

"I..I.." This time, it was Sakura who was stuttering her words.

"Awe!" Tenten and Ino said in unison.

Ino grinned brightly. "You _still_ have feelings for him!"

"I don't like Sasuke!" Sakura fought back.

"Of course not." It seemed like Tenten and Ino were enjoying this. "You _love_ him."

"Love him, _still_," Ino added. "Just like when you were twelve. You're head over heels for the boy!" She winked.

Sakura's face was bright crimson as she did not know what to say.

XxXx

"You're so lucky, man," Naruto chuckled over a bowl of ramen – Sasuke next to him. "Kissing Sakura so often..."

"It's acting, dobe."

"..Wait..You two are acting to be boyfriend and girlfriend _only_." Shikamaru placed his chopsticks down, finishing his dinner. "That doesn't mean you two have to kiss each other _every _time you see one another."

"Are you sure nothing's going on, Uchiha?" Neji seemed to be just as amused.

"It's none of your business, Hyuuga." Sasuke snarled.

"Wait, teme. Didn't you try to ask her out before?"

"No." It was a simple and quick answer for Sasuke who hid his face.

"Yeah, I remember that day," Shikamaru said. "You went and got yourself drunk later that night."

"And confessed _all_ your feelings." Neji smirked.

Sasuke glared at Neji, muttering a few offensive words and trying to hold himself down, deciding it wasn't necessary to permanently damage the Hyuuga's face.

"You better enjoy every moment you've got then, teme. Only a few weeks left before her relatives leave." Ordering another bowl of noodles, Naruto grinned. He enjoyed using this situation as a time to tease Sasuke.

"Shouldn't you use this bonding time to _actually_ ask her out?" Shikamaru suggested, his chin resting on his palm.

"Hell, no! She'll freak out and break our pretend relationship up!" Sasuke growled. It was uncharacteristic of him to yell at them like that, but he'd been stressing over their current topic for a while.

"Looks like the Uchiha's finally scared of something."

"Yes, I admit it. Will you..._urgh_, help me?"

XxXx

"– and then I finally realized that the story he told my family actually happened, only he didn't ask me out because he couldn't because I didn't let him because I told him I was too busy with work which I was, but I'm sure that if I asked, I could've gotten the day off...I...I.." Sakura hadn't taken many breaths for a while and could feel her mouth drying up.

Hinata gave her a glass of pop.

" Thanks," Sakura said, gulping the Pepsi down her throat. Taking a deep breath afterwards, she continued, "And, well, I couldn't sleep later that night because I kept thinking. Sasuke couldn't _really_ like like me, right? So now, each time I see him, I get really nervous. I mean, at first, our first kisses were fake, they were for show – just to show my relatives that he's the reason I'm out all the time when really its for missions. Even though it's still for show –at least, I think it's still for show, what if it's _not_ a show!? – my heart starts beating really fast and my face heats up and maybe, I think, it turns really red and–"

"Sakura!" The other three girls yelled.

Tenten shook her head. "You're acting just like Ino when she suspected Shikamaru of going out with that girl from Sand."

Hinata handed Sakura another can of Pepsi. "O..Or when Ino suspected Shikamaru of s..secretly making out w..with that girl with the glasses t..that works with him."

Ino rolled her eyes, shutting Tenten up before the brown haired girl could say anything else. "_Anyway_, you're obviously in love with Sasuke, Sakura."

"I told you, I am _not_!"

XxXx

"Hey! Sasu...teme. I think you're uh...drunk again. Isn't that _hic_ your...twenty-twelve..beer?" Naruto waved his mug around as he yelled that out.

The four had entered a bar after ramen and had started drinking.

Sasuke's face was planted sideways on the table. "It's not..._hic_ fair! Why won't Sakuwa go out with me? Why!?" The Uchiha was being very dramatic.

Nearby, Shikamaru, who was more of a smoker than drinker, placed the coin in the slot and dialed the numbers.

"Hello?"

"Ino, it's me."

"Hey, Shika!"

"Yeah, are the other girls over there?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Naruto, Neji and Sasuke are drunk and I need help taking them all home."

"Urgh, fine. We'll be there soon."

XxXx

"Come on Sasuke, let's get you home," Sakura said, dragging the tipsy boy across the dark streets.

Of course, the sleep over had been cancelled, with Hinata and Tenten taking Neji and Naruto to the Hyuuga home – Naruto refused to give the keys to his apartment, screaming something about them stealing his belongings, so the Hyuuga heiress gave up, deciding to bring him to her home.

With Ino and Shikamaru going off somewhere, Sakura was stuck with Sasuke.

She kicked the front door of the Uchiha complex open. "Dammit, Sasuke. Which house is your house?"

"The.._hic_ the one with the moat and dragon!" Sasuke yelled.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "You horrible drunk!" She couldn't have his weight on her shoulders anymore, so, instead, she dragged him to a house that had shoes out in the front. Dropping him on the couch in the living room, Sakura looked around and pulled a pail next to him. "Sasuke...Sasuke! Look, if you need to throw up, puke in _here_, okay?"

Sasuke looked up at her and smirked – even when drunk, he couldn't fully smile. "Hey! You have pink hair...I know someone with _hic_ pink hair..Sakon..Saka...or...I don't know her name!" He waved his arm around rather foolishly.

"Uh huh, that's nice Sasuke. Now lay down and– "

"BUT, she's much prettier than you!"

Sakura couldn't help but blush, startled by his comment.

"And...her smile...is _hic_ it lights up the room! Especially when she's in a good mood...which is most of the time until the...whiskers guy makes her mad, but still. Her mad face makes her look cute too!"

Sakura felt embarrassed, feeling the beating of her heart rise in speed.

Sasuke stood up, wobbling from one foot to another and keeping his eyes on Sakura. "Over and over again..I think...I set _everything_ up and plan and plan to make it..PERFECT, but she's always too _hic_ busy with the white building she works at..and those _stupid_ inured people..I can never ask her out!"

"What..what?" Sakura spat out. She was too frightened to say anything more. Instead, she turned around, attempting to leave, realizing soon afterwards that leaving a drunk man with weapons all over his house was dangerous.

"_Hic_..he..hey! Don't leave..." Sasuke grabbed Sakura's one arm and pulled her into him as he fell back on the couch.

There was a moment of quietness as Sakura sat still on Sasuke's lap, planning to get away from his hold. When she heard a light snoring, Sakura tried to get up, but no matter how hard she tried, Sasuke's grasp was too tight.

She let out a sigh, giving up. She laid there silently and eventually fell asleep.

XxXx

The phone rang, and Sasuke, at first, slowly opened his one eye to make sure Sakura was asleep. After he verified that she was, he quickly reached for phone that was on a side desk, picking it up before she did awake. However, his position on the couch didn't shift as much considering how close the phone was.

"What?" He whispered.

"Teme! Neji's on the other line."

"How did it go?"

"...What do you think?"

"Who knew the Uchiha was such a great actor."

"Yeah teme, first a fake boyfriend and now a fake drunk."

* * *

**Uhm...I'm in a depressing mood right now...please review and make me feel better?**

**Ohh, and in my Foods and Nutrition class today, we made chocolate chip cookies! Review and I'll give you some! xD**


	6. Chapter 6

**Inspiration for this chapter: How once you ask someone to do a favour, they start asking you back. Except that it's on a higher level than what you asked them. For example, you ask your older brother or sister to wash the dishes for you while you're busy with homework. Later, they'll ask you to return the favour by cleaning the toilet while they're out partying. xP  
**

**I would like to thank everybody for encouraging me last week and wishing my one friend well with her cancer (technically, not a friend..more like a second mom.) But still, she's feeling a lot better and so I decided to update this week. **

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx**

* * *

Sakura woke up, only to find that she was still wrapped around Sasuke's arms –tightly– and that the sun had risen to the top of the skies, telling her that it was noon. Yawning, she pushed the muscular arms away (they barely budged) until she lost her patience and decided the easiest way of getting him to let go of her is to actually wake him up. "Sasuke?" She nudged him. "Wake up...Wake up!"

Finally, the Uchiha's eyelids started to move slightly. His head turned a few times before one of his arms had let go of Sakura to rub his tired eyes.

Being free, Sakura quickly got up off of his couch and brushed her messy hair between her fingers, feeling embarrassed after remembering what had happened the night before. She could still hear his confession ringing in her head, repeating itself over and over again. Sakura rubbed her temples, trying to get the flashbacks to stop.

"What happened?" Sasuke sounded tired as he slowly got up, stretching his back which was aching from the uncomfortable sleeping position.

"You got drunk," Sakura replied.

"Oh..I didn't do or say anything, did I?" Inwardly, Sasuke smirked, but he kept his facade and looked as if he was still sleepy and unaware of what had happened.

Sakura stood there, hands held behind her back, wondering what to say. Finally, she smiled, opening her mouth to speak. "Just that you wanted your house to have a moat. Anyway, I have to go home, so bye." She turned around and headed out the door.

XxXx

"She's acting like nothing happened!" Sasuke slammed his fist on the wooden table where Naruto and Shikamaru were enjoying another meal at Ichiraku's. His teeth were clenched as he sat down on a stool next to the other two.

"Even after all the trouble we went through last night? Troublesome." Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Because of the whole 'drunk' thing, Hiashi won't allow Neji to lea – "

"He's grounded." Naruto laughed outloud. "Teme, maybe Sakura just needs a little time to think about all this."

Sasuke gave up. "Hn, whatever. I'm leaving."

"Don't forget to pick up Sakura for training later, _honey_." Naruto snickered, choking on a string of noodle after.

XxXx

"I'm back from Ino's!" Sakura yelled when she entered her home. She smiled at her cousin who seemed to be working out since she had her boxing gloves on.

"Hey, Sakura. Want to give it a go?" Yuki asked.

"What?" Firstly, the rosette was _way_ too strong. How would she know how to hit a non-ninja without possibly breaking her nose? And secondly, she wasn't really sure of the rules of boxing – just punching, right?

"I think that's a great idea, Yuki," her Uncle spoke up, entering the living room with his wife by his side and Sakura's parents behind them. "It'll be a small round. You know, to see who's more strong."

The jade eyed girl exhaled, trying to put the large gloves on. She knew that it wasn't _just_ her cousin who enjoyed showing off, but that those genes actually came from Yuki's parents. She then turned to her cousin, who had her arms in the air – gloves in front of her face– and was slightly hopping, ready to strike.

Sakura looked downwards at her current outfit, not liking what she was wearing. She didn't know how anybody could wear a tunic and leggings...and the hoop earrings! After two weeks, she officially loathed all earrings and the flats hurt her feet. But then, she thought about Sasuke, wondering if he liked the way she was dressing now. Shaking her head, Sakura didn't want to turn into the type of girl who was worried about what guys think of the was she dressed. Either way, the outfit was unsuitable for everything in Sakura's opinion.

By the time Sakura looked up to focus on Yuki,

_BAM_

The almost adult girl had fell backwards onto her bottom and felt a numbing feel on her nose. She had been through _much_ worse before, but Sakura was still shocked – at the surprising hit, _not_ the strength.

"That's my girl!" The bald man cheered. He looked at Sakura with a pitied look. "Awe, don't worry, Sakura. You're just a beginner. Yuki's been boxing for almost four years now!" He kept boasting, not even realizing that Sakura had already excused herself, pulling the gloves off and headed upstairs for a shower.

After her shower, Sakura put on new clothes – she still didn't like the way they looked. She ran downstairs, ready to go training until she noticed her entire family was in the living room watching a movie.

"Are you going out _again_?" Her Grandmother didn't look pleased.

"Can I come?" Yuki's voice piped up. "I haven't really done anything since I got here."

"Well..um.." Sakura knew Sasuke was going to come any moment now and that they were planning to train.

"You should!" Her Aunt sounded contented, like those mothers who are so happy to learn that their children made friends at a new school.

"Uh..sure."

XxXx

"You brought her _here_?!" Naruto exclaimed.

The two were a good enough distance so that her cousin couldn't hear Naruto complain, but weren't so far that it gave an impression that they were avoiding her.

"Well, I kept stalling, waiting for Sasuke to come pick me up for our _date_, but he never showed up so I had to."

"Can I ask what we're doing here?" It was Yuki's voice. "It's a place for ninjas!"

Naruto made a face. He didn't like the way Sakura's cousin said the word 'ninja'. "Every place is for ninjas," he muttered, crossing his arms.

Sakura gave a frustrated smile. "Yuki, I originally planned to meet Sasuke-kun," she emphasized the Uchiha's name, hoping Yuki would get it and leave. Unfortunately, the older girl didn't. "But I haven't seen him, so I went here to see if he was with Naruto."

"Sheesh, just call him."

"Uh..Sasuke-kun's never really home,"

Yuki shook her head. "Sakura, I don't think you should date someone who never goes home and parties all day and night."

Naruto looked at her like she was stupid. Obviously, Yuki had no clue what _non_- regular people do during the day.

"Who parties?" Sasuke asked from behind.

Sakura frowned. "Where have you been?"

"At the Hokage's."

XxXx

"I _really_ want to train today though," Sakura whined. She glanced at Yuki who sat silently against a nearby tree. Sakura didn't even know where to take her.

"Sakura, she doesn't like ninjas, right? Make her watch me and teme train. She'll get so bored, she'll _have_ to leave!" Naruto's other two teammates were surprised, actually agreeing with his plan.

"Uh, Yuki?" Emerald eyes gazed at the brown ones that were slightly covered by her mahogany bangs. "Do you mind if we stay here and watch them train? It's _really fun_."

"What? You mean we're not going to go to the amusement park?!"

Sakura looked puzzled. She wasn't even sure there was an amusement park in the village. "Uh, no. But trust me, it'll be fun."

XxXx

Sakura sat on the side, watching Naruto create clones, charging at Sasuke who's eyes were a bright crimson. Both, while running, had done their signature moves; Naruto had his rasengan and Sasuke with his chidori. There was a loud explosion and Sakura turned to her cousin, hoping that she was either miserably bored or disgusted at the way they fought – after all, it had been over a few hours and the sun was setting. She wanted to train!

"Damn," Sakura mumbled when she saw her cousin's reaction.

The brunette had never been so astonished in her life. Her mouth gaped and eyes were as sparkly as the stars in the night sky. Yuki quickly clapped her hands, amused at the fight and she intensely stared at the two males in front of her, waiting for more. "WOO! Go Sasuke, go Naruto!" She yelled. Yuki turned to Sakura. "I love ninjas! I want to be one! You're so lucky you get to be with one everyday."

Sakura nervously nodded. "Uh..huh."

XxXx

After training, – Sakura was _very_ disappointed considering she didn't get to do _anything_ – Naruto suggested that they'd go eat ramen.

"Yuki!" Sakura called for her cousin. "Do you think that you don't tell your parents and Grandma that I brought you here?"

Yuki's head tilted to the side. "Ooh, I get it. Don't worry, Sakura." She skipped ahead to catch up with Naruto who was cheerfully awaiting for Ichiraku's.

"Sakura."

Said girl slowed down, turning her face to see Sasuke coming towards her. "Yeah?"

"Do you think you could do me a favour tomorrow?"

Sakura thought for a moment, listing what needed to be done for the next day. "I don't think I have any plans..why?"

Sasuke paused, hesitating, but then spoke up. "Well, you know how I'm your fake boyfriend?"

"Yeah..."

"Tomorrow, can you be my fake fiancee?"

* * *

**The chapter I'm currently writing for this fic is chapter 18 (I didn't intend for this story to be so long...but...Yeah, it was all written in notebook with pen so I didn't really know how long it was) and I'm having major writer's block. If it gets to the point where it's getting kinda close to that chapter (I might actually rewrite chapters 15 to 18 though...) I'll start updating once every two weeks instead of every week..but that won't be for another while, so no worries. Just hope I get my groove back by then.**

**However, I'm afraid that this fic will only get cornier and cornier by the chapter just like Sasuke's personality (Yeah...its a habit for me to write cliche stuff...I can't get out of it Dx)**

**Lastly, I would like to thank all of you, you all deserve cookies and the carrot muffins I made in class today for reviewing my previous chapter!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Inspiration for this chapter: **Lots and lots of dramas...and how fangirls get mad so easily.

**Ew, don't like this chapter. Sasuke was terribly out of character for this. Oh and a second thing before I forget, I would like to thank _all_ of you for reviewing the last chapter! Again, every review is important even if it just says one word or if its ubber long. :)**

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx**

* * *

"_What_?!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. He did _not_ like repeating himself. "You heard me," he simply said, slowing his pace so that Naruto and her cousin – strangely excited for ramen – wouldn't hear.

"...But...wha...how.." She paused. "What for?" She was too confused (yet excited) to speak.

Sasuke looked at her. "Tomorrow, there is going to be a formal party at the Kazusa home."

"And you need a fiancee because..?" Sakura interrupted him.

"Because I'm only seventeen. Since I'm not an adult yet and because I'm the only one left in the Uchiha family, a lot of the decisions are made by the other clan leaders. However, even though I'm still young, they're scared that with all the missions I go on, I might...get into an accident, preventing any future Uchiha generations. According to the Hokage– "

"That's why you were late earlier!" Sakura pointed out rather stupidly. She glanced at Sasuke, who she officially decided did not like to be interrupted.

"..According to the Hokage," he repeated, "if I'm not married or aren't planning to marry by tomorrow's party – I _have_ to go there by the way, so don't suggest I ditch it – the other clan leaders will choose a wife for me."

"So...do I just show up at the party and tell them..I'm engaged to you?"

"..Aa. Something like that. Just show up at my place tomorrow morning at six. Oh, and bring your kimono."

XxXx

"Uh, Sasuke?" It was early morning and Sakura peaked into the room. Her pink hair was neatly clipped up and she wore a red kimono with flower prints on it. She looked around, trying to find the Uchiha.

"Yeah, just a moment." Then stepped out Sasuke from his room, wearing a light blue kimono. He walked towards her and smirked, reaching towards a small box on his desk, opening it and pulling out a hairpin that had the Uchiwa fan on it; the jewels on it were sparkling, made out of many diamonds and rubies. Leaning towards the petite girl, he clipped her side bangs.

"It's like an engagement ring, but for Uchiha's. Instead of wearing a ring, you can just wear this which is proof enough that you're mine and not someone else's," he explained.

Sakura nodded, flushing a bright cherry colour.

"That's good. Just stay silent like this during the party and we don't have to answer any unnecessary questions." He smirked, causing the girl in front of him to get angry.

The two soon left the home and into the fancy ride – Sakura squealed as she was excited as Sasuke shook his head in disbelief. It was a silent ride, until they could see the large mansion the they were approaching.

Sakura looked out of the windows, seeing a large crowd of people.

"That's the Kazusa home, and he is the clan leader." Sasuke pointed to a middle aged man with a moustache. "You know his daughter, right? Kazusa Ami?"

Sakura nodded, gritting her teeth. She remembered Ami; she was the girl who bullied Sakura when she was young for her overly large sized forehead and her odd hair colour. That was before she befriended Ino, of course. "Is Ino or Hinata going to be here too?"

Sasuke thought for a moment, looking out to see the other guests. "Maybe, but I doubt it. It's mostly clan leaders and their spouses."

Disappointed, Sakura sighed.

XxXx

"Uchiha Sasuke, nice to see you again!" the man greeted.

Sasuke bowed his head, elbowing Sakura to do the same. "It's nice to see you too Inouye-san."

Sakura had no idea Sasuke knew so many people. As she looked around at all the people there and all of them coming up to Sasuke, she wondered why he was so antisocial most of the time.

"This is my fiancee, Sakura."

Automatically, the rosette who softly smiled had butterflies in her stomach. Although it made her feel nervous, being called 'Sasuke Uchiha's fiancee' it also made her feel giddy (it was _much_ better than being called 'teme's girlfriend')

Listening to the soft violin in the background, she noticed that there were many girls attended there, all around her's and Sasuke's age. She could only assume the clan leaders wanted to introduce their daughters to Sasuke who they believe wasn't taken.

"Stay here. I have to talk to a few people about some things and I'll be right back," Sasuke whispered in her ear.

She nodded and suddenly, she was alone in a crowded – utterly boring – party.

"Well, well, well. Look who we have here?"

She cringed, not liking the sudden voice approaching from behind. Sakura turned around, only to see a chestnut colored hair girl – who had on _way_ too much makeup – and her friends (the same group from when she was five years old, Sakura realized).

"I thought daddy only invited _important_ people that came from _important_ families." She laughed.

"It's nice to see you too...Ami." Sakura choked out. Inside her head, she slowly counted to ten, not wanting to punch Ami in the face in front of all the people.

Luckily, before the three girls got to say anything else to Sakura, Sasuke approached with the Kazusa clan leader and interrupted.

"Ah, Sasuke. This is my daughter, Ami. I'm sure you've met her before."

Sasuke forced a smile which only came out as a small smirk. "Yes, I have. It's nice to see you again, Miss Ami."

"H...Hi, Sasuke-kun," Ami replied back shakily.

Sakura rolled her eyes. Of all the fangirls who'd stay loyal to the Uchiha throughout the years, the pinkette could tell that Ami was the oldest who'd still barely matured.

He smirked, putting his arm around Sakura's shoulder –alarming the girls across from them– and pulling her closer. "I'm sure _you_ remember _my fiancee_, Sakura."

Thankfully, Sakura's face didn't turn red. On the inside, Sakura was grinning evilly. Ever since she was young, Sakura had been waiting for the day Sasuke Uchiha and her would do _this _in front of Kazusa Ami.

The bully-girl stood there, dumbfounded with her mouth wide open, not even sure of what to say.

"Yeah, Ami." Sakura pointed to the Uchiwa hairpin on her head. "See?"

The Uchiha smirked, glad to know Sakura was enjoying the moment. He stopped her before she got _too_ confident though. "Come on, we have to meet other people too." He dropped his hand from her shoulder and grabbed her hands, walking away.

XxXx

"It's nice to meet you, Sakura."

The rosette bowed her head. "It's nice to meet you too Kimiguchi-san."

As the person walked away, Sakura let out a sigh of relief. "How can you remember all of these names?" She asked.

"I studied last night," Sasuke muttered. "Ah, Lady Tsubaki." He walked ahead to talk to an elderly woman.

After he turned around and walked straight to Sakura, he whispered, "She's _exactly_ like your grandmother. Doesn't like ninjas."

"Why is she here then?" Sakura whispered back.

"Arrange marriage. She was forced to marry into the family she's in now."

"I see."

"Anyway," his voice got louder. "This is my fiancee, Sakura."

Lady Tsubaki looked up at the girl. Her grey hairs were pulled back into a tight bun and there weren't any loose strands. "That's nice. Is she a ninja too?"

"N..No." Sakura spoke up, hoping that maybe by saying that, at least one person will talk to her besides Sasuke.

The woman looked at her with an icy stare, mouth forming a line. "I see," she said. "Well, I wish you the best of luck with _him_. Trust me, a life with a ninja isn't exciting." She got up, alerting her servants to follow her and left.

Sakura sighed. It had been over four hours since she arrived at the party and even though she has more respect from Lady Tsubaki than the rest of the guests, no one was willing to stop and chat.

Sasuke looked at her frown, himself making one too on his face. Swiftly, he walked and leaned towards Sakura. "How bad do you want to leave this place?" He whispered.

Her head instant turned to face him. "_Please_ tell me we are," she begged.

Sasuke smirked, almost giving a laugh at her response. "Then will you mind if I tell them my bride-to-be is making me take her home? We haven't even seen the theater plays and the board games yet." He said sarcastically.

She gave an exhale. "I don't care, just take me away from this place."

Sasuke closed his eyes, shaking his head. "I'll be back then, _honey_," he said using the nickname Sakura originally gave him. He pressed his lips on the side of hers before he left to the Kazusa leader.

"Sakura?" It was a shy voice, coming from behind her.

"Hinata! What are you doing here?" Sakura smiled at the violet haired girl. "I thought it was only clan leaders."

"I..It is, but my father wanted to bring me here so I can learn ahead of time about being a leader."

Sakura could tell Hinata had been practicing, trying not to stutter.

"Anyway..Are you and S..Sasuke finally together?" She asked. "I saw you two kissing just now."

Sakura blushed. "Hinata I'm only– "

"Pretending, I know. B..But he kissed you."

"We always do when we're pretending though." Sakura wasn't sure what the big deal was with kissing. Clearly, the ones from her and Sasuke meant nothing.

"S..Sakura, this is a formal clan party. Now only is th..that hairpin on your hair enough proof, but he's already introduced you to everyone that you're his fiancee. Plus, no one was really looking in your direction when you two kissed."

Sakura blinked. Twice. She was reciting what Hinata had just said. "...WHAT?!"

Everyone suddenly stared at the two and Sakura hid her face from embarrassment. "_What_?" She repeated again, quietly.

XxXx

"It was nice." Sakura said on their way home. No one had said anything since they had left the mansion.

"Hn, I thought you said it was boring."

"Yes, it was. But it was nice to hear you talking..you know, being social for once."

He did the eye roll again as the limo stopped in front of her house.

"Oh, right. Sorry. I forgot about the..the hairpin." She took it off, placing it on Sasuke's palm, but flushed. Each time she saw his face, she would remember what Hinata said about what he did. _Then_, she would remember about the night he was drunk.

"Aa. Thanks for coming." He got out of the car to open the door for her.

Sakura slowly got out of the limo, looking up and saw Sasuke's eyes on hers. Sakura could feel her heart beating, starting off slowly but then growing irregular and quick as she leaned in. She could feel him breathing as the distance between them got smaller and smaller.

Something snapped in her head and Sakura regained focus, backing up away from Sasuke. "Uh..well, bye." She quickly turned around and hurried into her house.

* * *

**I didn't make anything in foods class this week, but I have some Oreos, so please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Inspiration for this chapter:**I dunno. The chocolate sitting in front of me?

**You didn't think I'd forget to update this week, did you? Haha, of course not!...I ALMOST forgot to update (But I _didn't_, that's the important thing)**

**Anyway, THANK YOU _so, so_ much for the reviews last chapter! I really, really, _really_ appreciated it cause it seems like I haven't been as energetic lately as usual. _So_, I'm trying to get my energy back up! Hope you guys enjoy this chapter.**

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx**

* * *

"Mom, Dad," Yuki said during dinner.

Everybody stopped eating, facing the adult girl.

"Yes, dear?" Sakura's Uncle asked, gulping down a glass of water.

"I've been thinking for a long time..and I want to be a ninja!"

Her Uncle spat out the water and stared at his daughter in horror. "WHAT!?" he screamed at the top of his lungs, causing the others to flinch. He slammed his fist on the table, just missing the knife and a vein popped on his bald head as his face grew redder. "What gave you _that_ idea?!"

"Sakura," she simply replied.

All eyes turned to the rosette who dropped her head down. "She wasn't supposed to say that," Sakura muttered, remembering about the time she brought her cousin to watch her two teammates train.

"I mean, when she brought me out the other day...we passed this place where people were training..and I really want to try it Daddy," Yuki explained and there was less pressure on Sakura as the eyes turned away from the kunoichi.

"Yuki, I don't want you to go anywhere near a ninja," their Grandmother said, frowning. "You have no idea how dangerous they are."

Sakura did an eye roll, wondering why her Grandma would think they are dangerous yet was willing to visit a village that is known for their ninjas. She turned to her cousin. "Yuki, Grandma's right. You can really hurt yourself being a ninja, especially at your age right now. _I think_ you have to be around four or five to start at the academies for ninja training. Even so, it takes years to perfect it."

Her aunt looked at her. "How would _you_ know?"

She scratched the back of her head. "I get a lot of injured kids in the hospital who...get hurt from training."

"But, Daddy!" Yuki whined. "You know I get good at everything _really_ fast. Please, please, _please_ just let me try it for one day?"

Sakura shook her head. She knew what her Uncle was going to say especially because of how much that man spoiled her cousin.

"..Well, if it's only for one day..." her Uncle started.

The rosette inwardly groaned, knowing she's going to be involved.

"But only if Sakura's with you."

"Thanks Daddy!" Her cousin got out of her chair to kiss the bald man on the head.

Sakura's Grandmother didn't speak, but didn't look at her cousin the rest of the night. "You spoil her too much," she muttered after Yuki had left the room.

Sakura frowned. Why were they harsh to her when it came to ninjas but not to Yuki?

XxXx

"Are you sure you really want to do this, Yuki?" Sakura asked again, laying on her bed. She stared at the ceiling, wishing that her cousin would reply 'no' because she did _not_ want to take her to the fields again. The girl was just too annoying with her cheers and prevented Sakura from doing anything fun.

"Yes, Sakura! Ooh, maybe your boyfriend can teach me how to throw those sharp things!"

Slowly exhaling, Sakura turned her head to face her cousin who sat on the mattress. "It's called a shuriken and I'm not sure. Sasuke-kun's often busy." Right when she said his name, an image of him kissing her at the clan party two days before made her shiver. She really didn't want to think about that _again_.

"Will you please ask him then? Oh and if he says yes, maybe both of us could learn together!" Her cousin sounded very excited.

Sakura shyly smiled, realizing it could give her an excuse to hold a weapon which she incredibly missed (she reminded herself of Tenten at that moment). "Yeah, yeah, I'll ask him tomorrow after work."

The next day, Sakura found Sasuke and Naruto at the ramen stand and approached them. "Sasuke, Naruto, will you do me a favour?" She asked, smiling brightly.

The Uchiha turned around, frowning. "_Another_ favor?"

Naruto elbowed Sasuke in the gut, grinning afterwards. "Sure, Sakura!"

"Can you...teach Yuki _and_ me how to throw kunais and shuriken?"

The two males gave a blank expression as well as a blank response. Naruto blinked a few times before he scratched the back of his head, chuckling. "Sakura..you know how to use them already. Why do we– "

"Because after seeing you and Sasuke train, my cousin wants to be a ninja. My Uncle is spoiling her as always and is only letting her do this once. Also, I'm getting annoyed with her and her questions, so I promised I would ask you guys. Plus, it'll give me some time to get away from my family. Please, please, please!" She begged.

Sasuke stared at her. "Sakura, you're almost always away from your family." He turned around, finishing up his bowl of noodles.

"So..is that a yes?" Sakura asked again.

"Yeah!" Naruto yelled out. "We'll _both_ help out." The blond placed his arm around Sasuke's shoulder.

XxXx

There were a few targets and dummies made of straw placed around the field when the two girls arrived and Sakura noticed her cousin looking around, fascinated and excited as if she's never seen them before. The petite girl's brows furrowed, actually wondering what her cousin and _regular_ people do daily for their spare time.

She looked up ahead, seeing Sasuke sitting in the shade of a tree and Naruto waving – he seemed to be enjoying it, knowing that he was getting a chance to...pass down his knowledge.

"So what do you want to do?" Sakura asked her cousin who gave a confused face.

"Shouldn't we start from the beginning?" The brunette asked.

Naruto shook his head. "No way, do you know how boring that is? It'll take _forever_ to learn all the basics!"

Her cousin nodded. "Can I try weapon throwing then?"

Naruto nodded, bringing her over to the targets, leaving Sakura and Sasuke alone.

Sakura walked over to the unemotional man and sat next to him. "You look like you're having fun," she sarcastically said, brushing her hair back with her fingers. She sighed, leaning back against the tree and closing her eyes, wishing that everything went back to the way it was before her family arrived.

"Sakura!"

She could hear her cousin screaming her name, interrupting her thoughts. She opened an eye, peaking at the girl who was waving her hand from across the field.

"Come join me! It's so fun!"

"You should," Sasuke's voice popped up. "It might be your only chance to hold a weapon in a while seeing as how your family is getting more annoying by the minute. Who knows when your Aunt or Uncle will want to become a ninja and beg us to train them."

Sakura glared at him, actually not really taking offense at his comment but agreeing with him too. "Only if you come too, _honey_." She smirked, grabbing his hand and dragging him upwards and towards the blond and her cousin. "If I suffer learning the basics, you're suffering with me," she muttered.

When they had gotten near to the other two, Sakura turned to Sasuke. "So, Sasuke-kun...which one is a shuriken and which one is a kunai? I want you to teach me _everything_." She knew how he hated talking, and yet grinned evilly.

XxXx

Eventual boredom was what happened to Sakura as she plopped down onto the grass, remembering that it wasn't _as_ bad when she first learned how to hold a weapon. Now, it just seemed like _the_ worst thing in the world. She glanced at her cousin, who, despite telling everybody that she gets good at things really quickly, was sucking. Badly.

Sakura tried to hide her smile, realizing that she was just as bad as Naruto when he started out back when they were still children.

"Sakura!" Yuki ran over to her and smiled. "Wanna have a competition and see who gets better points on those target boards over there?"

Sakura looked up at her cousin, realizing it could be an opportunity to finally quiet down the girl after she beats her. Smiling, Sakura got up and nodded.

Yuki started off by throwing the kunai and missing the target by just a small bit. She laughed gleefully, seeing as how it was the closest she had ever gotten to the target since earlier that afternoon.

"Don't show off too much," Sasuke warned as Sakura passed him.

Sakura pulled out a kunai, not even angling the weapon before launching it at a tree. The rosette smiled and took Sasuke's advice since the weapon was really close to the center circle. "Beginner's luck," she told her cousin who was speechless, for once.

Afterwards, her cousin began with the practice aiming again and Sakura was playing around with a kunai, spinning it between her fingers.

"You're holding it wrong," Sasuke said behind her, crouching down and grabbing Sakura's hand, preventing her from spinning the weapon anymore. Her face flushed red, feeling him breathe on her neck and holding onto her hand. "I know you're just a _beginner_, but you have to hold the kunai...like this." He took her fingers and made it wrap around the weapon.

Startled, by the sudden memories of the past, she pushed him aside. "Geeze, she's not even looking. No need to pretend like I don't know anything, Sasuke." She hurriedly walked away, still red. Nibbling on her lip, she was scared to turn around to see Sasuke again. "Urgh, what's wrong with me?"

XxXx

The two girls finally reached home – Yuki with a large grin on her face.

"How was it?" Her Uncle looked away from the newspaper he held when they entered the house. He, his wife and the elderly woman awaited for the girl's response.

Sakura could tell they were waiting for her to complain about how hard it was and somewhat felt sorry for their daughter's upcoming response.

Like a child, Yuki replied, "It was awesome! Can Sakura take me to her ninja friends _again_?"

"Oh crap," Sakura muttered.

Luckily, it was her angry-faced Grandmother who replied, "No."

XxXx

Sakura sat on her bed, leaning against the headboard.

Every time she closed her eyes, she could see the image of Sasuke at the training fields, holding her hand. When she opened them, she could hear his drunken state and when someone talked to her, she could only hear his voice.

She plugged her ears for a moment, hoping that the voices will stop, but then his face would suddenly appear again.

"No, no, no. Stop it!" After a few curses, Sakura dropped onto a pillow. "I need to stop being around him," she decided.

* * *

**I made some pie (apple) in my nutrition class today. I'll offer some if you review (please and thank you, of course!)**

**I'll see you guys next week!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Inspiration for chapter: **Oh...just random shows and how its hilarious when it goes from one view to another.

**A BIG thank you to _all_ my reviewers and people who added me to their favs and alerts! You make me feel so happpyyy**

**About this chapter: **Unless you're a big fan of Blue Cheese or Cheese Whiz, you're not going to like this chapter cause its terribly, insanely, horribly cheesy. Not for Sasuke who's the normally out of character one, but for Sakura.

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx**

* * *

A few days after the ninja training with Yuki, Sakura had gotten into a fight. After a large (loud) argument with her Grandmother the other night, Sakura was forced to stay home – her Grandma thought that she was spending too much time away from home and should be staying in one spot to spend quality family time instead of _'partying'_.

She realized that maybe she should be obedient towards them for once, so she didn't stop by anywhere and came home directly. It was around four in the afternoon when she came back from the hospital, opening the door to her home and hearing an unfamiliar voice coming form her kitchen.

"Hello?" Sakura called out.

Two elderly women – one was her Grandmother – came out to the living room where Sakura was standing.

"This is my granddaughter, Sakura," her Grandmother said.

Jade eyes looked up and saw the woman with her Grandma.

"Lady Tsubaki!?" She loudly murmured. Inside, Sakura started panicking, wondering if the old woman remembered her. She prayed that the ninja-hating woman wouldn't do anything. Switching her eyes' focus from her Grandmother to the woman beside her (who was staring at the rosette), Sakura waited for the right moment. "Uh, Grandma. I remember I left something at the hospital so I –"

"I remember now. Aren't you Sasuke Uchiha's fiancee? I saw you at the party," Lady Tsubaki said, smiling as the creases on her face grew thicker.

"_WHAT_!?" Her Grandmother shrieked. "Fiancee? When did you two get engaged?"

"I –"

"You're only seventeen, Sakura! How could you do that?"

"But –"

"He's a ninja! It's either you'll be a widow as soon as you get married or he becomes a widow because you're going to get killed!"

Sakura gave up, thinking of a way to fix this (yet breathing irregularly at the same time). She knew that if she said she wasn't Sasuke's fiancee, Lady Tsubaki could tell the other leaders. Then, he would be forced to marry someone else. Also, she had told her that even though Sakura was engaged to the Uchiha, she wasn't a ninja, so her Grandmother wouldn't find out anything. The only problem Sakura was really going to have was her _entire_ family dealing with the news– her parents would have many questions. She sighed as it was the only solution that wouldn't affect Sasuke _too_ much (her father would strangle him).

"...I'm...I'm sorry I didn't tell you, Grandma," she calmly said. "But I'm..." She took in a deep breath before continuing. "I really love him," she lied. "I'm really in love with him."

She didn't even plan to say it the second time as the words just came right out of her mouth and it made her tingle. Sakura could feel her chest beating very quickly and the 'L' word kept repeating over and over again in her head.

The elderly woman stared at her, trying to come up with the proper words to respond.

Gulping, she could feel her face burning up quickly. All of a sudden, she froze. When she repeated it, it didn't feel like a lie. _I love him, I love him, I love him,_ it echoed in her head. The first repeat sounded like a lie. However, as she kept thinking it, the sounds of it got to be more... believable.

"You love him? Sakura, just because you _love_ him, doesn't mean you can go get married!"

It took her a moment before she noticed her Grandmother talking to her. Suddenly, she opened her mouth to talk back to the old woman who was _really_ getting on her nerves. "This is _my_ life, Grandma." It was scaring her, what she was saying and the fact that the words that were about to go out of her mouth were unplanned – she had no idea what she was going to say next.

"I have fun when I'm with him," Sakura spoke very slowly and carefully. "If I don't like something, or if I'm not happy, he always tries to make it better. Every moment I'm with him or think about him, my heart beats really fast." Strangely, Sakura couldn't tell if anything she was saying were really untrue. Suddenly, she could feel tears at the edges of her eyes. Maybe it was the fear that her Grandma and Lady Tsubaki would figure out that she was lying. Sakura didn't want them to know the truth. She enjoyed being with Sasuke on their _pretend_ dates and she didn't want Sasuke to be with anybody else but–

(She turned to the side, away from the two elderly women. She bit her lip, trying to prevent herself from crying anymore. Why had she been so clueless?)

– her.

"I love him?" It came out as a question. "I love him...I love him!" She quickly finished. "...I have to go." She then went running out the door, despite being told to stay at home for the rest of the remaining week.

XxXx

"I love him.." She panted as she ran across the street. "I love Sasuke." She couldn't control her breaths and she was breathing frantically.

"Sakura?" Ino called out. She held multiple shopping bags and Hinata as well as Tenten came out of the store. "What's wrong?" She asked.

The blond pulled Sakura into a hug.

"I think I love him...I think I'm in love with Sasuke."

XxXx

"Hey, Sakura! Do you want to train with me? It's been a while," Naruto asked when he passed by the group of girls.

"I..."

"Yes, she would!" Tenten answered. Then, she whispered in Sakura's ear, "You need to calm down. Training will help. Besides, you haven't done anything like that in a while."

"Great!" Naruto said, grabbing Sakura and bringing her to the training fields.

When they arrived at the green valleys, Sakura sighed, cracking her knuckles. She tried to forget about her newfound feelings. Tenten was right, maybe training would clear her mind.

"Hn, you're late."

"Sasuke?" Sakura started to freak out again, not knowing that the Uchiha was going to be there. Small tints of pink appeared on her cheeks (it gradually grew to larger shades of red).

"Right, well, let's train!" Naruto chuckled.

XxXx

"What!?"

"You heard me! Your daughter is _engaged_ to the Uchiha!" The elder said.

"How could she be engaged? She told me there was nothing going on between them!" Her father's face was a bright red, furious at what his Mother just told him.

"Honey, you shouldn't worry about her. She's grown up and it's very common for ninjas to propose this early. Besides, she can take care of herself," her Mother said, realizing that her husband was just about to uncover their pretend relationship.

"She's _seventeen_!" Her Grandmother yelled again.

XxXx

Her fists glowed green when she punched the ground so that the terrain would be more suitable for her. She eyed Naruto who made clones and Sasuke who was so focused as his hair swayed in the breeze and... – Sakura shook her head, trying to focus on the fight.

Pulling out a weapon, Sasuke launched them at the blond and rosette.

Both dodged them and one of Naruto's clones appeared behind Sakura.

She quickly disappeared into smoke, appearing behind the clone and punching it, only to find that it also turned to smoke.

XxXx

"She's always out! You need to be more strict with her like I am with Yuki!" Somehow, her Uncle had also gotten into the argument. "Do you even have any idea where she goes each time?"

"She goes on dates like a regular person would!" Her Mother yelled, defending Sakura.

"At 2 in the morning?" It was her Aunt this time. "I once saw her sneaking out!"

"But," Sakura's Mother spoke again. "It's normal for..wait, what? 2 in the _morning_!?"

XxXx

Sakura and Naruto hid behind the boulders that Sakura had created. The flames were getting bigger from Sasuke.

A clone of Naruto's suddenly showed up behind Sasuke and grabbed his arms and Sakura quickly charged at the Uchiha with a fist in the air.

XxXx

"I should've known...he's always picking her up and showing up everywhere!"

"I even saw her holding a weapon once," Sakura's Uncle said. "He's a really bad influence on her."

XxXx

Naruto was down – Sakura had broken most of his bones and he couldn't walk. He had to wait until his body healed itself before he could fight again.

Sasuke twisted her arm and prevented her from moving.

Sakura was tired, but more nervous at their closeness so she did a backwards kick.

The Uchiha fell back, going through a few trees and rocks.

XxXx

"Do you think they've slept together yet?" Yuki suddenly asked.

XxXx

"Okay," she panted. "We're finally done." She fell backwards, tired.

"Yeah..that was _awesome_," Naruto said.

XxXx

All eyes darted to her cousin.

XxXx

Sasuke was panting the entire time and didn't speak. He fell backwards too, laying next to Sakura.

XxXx

"My daughter is definitely _not_ having sex!"

XxXx

"It's getting late, we should go home now." Sakura got up, brushing the dirt off her hospital uniform– she never changed out of her outfit.

"Okay, later." Naruto waved, leaving.

Before Sasuke turned around, Sakura gently tapped him on the shoulders.

"Uh, Sasuke?"

"Aa?"

She fidgeted with her fingers and pressed her lips together, planning the right words to say. Finally, she looked up at him and gulped. "You're...going to have to be my fake fiancee now."

He stared at her with a questioning look.

"Well, because it turns out that Lady Tsubaki, that ninja-hating old lady– "

"Calm down, Sakura."

She took a deep breath. "Right, well. It turns out," she spoke slowly, "that Lady Tsubaki is my Grandmother's friend and she saw me and told my Grandma I was your fiancee."

Sasuke blinked a few times, furrowing his brows. "Okay.."

"And, I..uhh, didn't want Lady Tsubaki to know you really weren't my fiancee 'cause then the other clan leaders will make you marry someone else." Sakura wasn't calm at all. Every word she was saying would repeat itself in her head.

"Hn, okay." Sasuke, however, sounded calm. "Just try to avoid any questions or...just avoid your family tonight."

Sakura nodded.

XxXx

The old lady was _very_ annoyed. She sat on the couch where her two daughter-in-laws also sat. Her granddaughter, Yuki, sat on a nearby chair and her two sons sat on the opposite sofa.

"She's too young," her father muttered. He knew that at first, she was only pretending to be the Uchiha's girlfriend to hide the fact that she was a ninja, but then he saw his baby girl kissing him and leaving more often with him. He doubted that the engagement was a lie; it was just too big to be pretend.

The door suddenly opened and Sakura came in, finding awkward silences. She looked across the room at everybody.

"Sakura..why are you so, tired looking?"

"I overworked at the hospital. I'm going to take a shower now." She quickly rushed upstairs.

Yuki snickered. "I bet she was with Sasuke. That's why she was so...sweaty."

"Yuki," Sakura's Father spoke up. "_Please_ stay out of this."

**Please review and I'll give you some...Smarties...AND KITKATS, I have KitKats... :)**

**A/N: **Oh and some people have been asking about my other story _Issues_ which I last updated about two months ago cause I lost my touch for it and then I got really busy when I did have my touch and then I lost it again and although I'm somewhat busy now, I'm typing it up (Er...I'm trying to...I keep backspacing and starting over and over again) so I'll try to update it soon! Sorry for taking so long!

**I'll see you guys next week!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Inspiration for this chapter:** I don't think I had any. It was just random cause I wanted to lead up to this thing...that'll happen in two chapters. Yeah.

**Thanks _so_ much for all the reviews, guys! You really know how to make a miserably-stressed-out-school-is-killing-me-person happy.**

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**Xmarksthespot**

**DISCLAIMER AFTER TEN CHAPTERS: **Opps, I totally forgot about the disclaimer. Even after ten chapters, I still can't own Naruto yet. One day, _one day_ I will...

**XxXx**

* * *

The next morning, Sakura woke up with bags under her eyes (she could _not_ sleep) and got into her hospital uniform, leaving for work. However, she skipped breakfast since there were leering eyes from the table – she was thinking the entire night why no one, even Yuki, had asked her anything about her 'engagement'.

Maybe it was the fact that she didn't have an engagement ring on her finger that they weren't fussing over it as much. Either that or they're hoping their silent treatment and rudeness towards her would give her a clue that 'family is more important than anything, respect their choices and cancel the engagement'.

Her Grandmother, she knew, was originally fine with her dating Sasuke. After all, the woman had high hopes that the two would end up like the majority of couples; Sasuke and Sakura were going to break up. However, now that they were betrothed, her Grandmother's attitude towards anything that reminded her of the Uchiha was bitter.

With an empty stomach, she started off heading towards the hospital, but turned to the Hokage tower instead. Today was the meeting at the Hokage tower about the Festival of Nations.

Sakura noticed that there were many people already there, standing in rows of approximately five or six. She quickly ran behind a line that consisted of Yamato, Sai and Naruto.

The door opened again and a crowd of people entered including Sasuke. He stepped to his team's line, behind Sakura.

Her chest started to thump rapidly again and tried to lean away from him so her face wouldn't change color, but it was him who leaned towards her.

"Sakura, we should wait until your relatives leave, then we can tell your parents the engagement was fake," he whispered.

Sakura shakily nodded and agreed with him. She had thought about telling her parents now so they would stop giving her the uncomfortable looks, but she knew their acting wouldn't be that good which meant the rest of her family would be more suspicious.

There were many whispers and one of the nins yelled, "Shouldn't we start now, Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade sat back comfortably in her chair. "We still need one more guest. Be patient."

Sakura looked around, noticing everybody, even Jiraiya within the room. That was when she looked at her own team and discovered Kakashi wasn't there.

"He's late again," Naruto said, crossing his arms.

A puff of smoke appeared at that moment, but the masked man didn't give any excuses and just walked to his line.

"Alright," Tsunade started. "First off, after interrogating the spy from the Mist Village, we have found out that he was the only one in the village. Although we have no reason to believe him, everybody who was on patrol in the village still haven't seen any abnormal behaviour. Even so, please continue to be on the look out.

"Also, we've received updated news about the Mizukage. Apparently, he is going to be bringing around three guards, but also a few teams of jounin and chuunin.

"The kages and I will be within the ceremonial building on the east side of the village on the day of the Festival, but we're not going to stay there the entire time. Actually, we will be going around the village – like tourists.

"The teams of chuunin and jounin are permitted to roam around Konohagure on their own and enjoy the festival. However, because of what has been happening lately, I want all of you to be scouting the area during that time. We have already devised a plan and locations for all your teams."

Shikamaru then stepped up, showing a chart with a diagram of the village. "The medics should all spread out in different locations so that there wouldn't be any problems if there are attacks," he started, pointing at the small stars on the map that were all evenly across from each other.

"I suggest that Sakura Haruno should be on the western side of the village because of your strength. It's not too far from the hospital which is where you might be needed part way through the night, but not too close to the village to harm anybody – just mostly open fields. Also, since your team works well with you, Naruto will be in the village between the center and west of Konoha and Sasuke will be in the south-western area. It'll be easier to get backup that way."

Shikamaru went on with the other teams and where their locations should be.

"However, this is just a rough plan and we don't want to get caught or look too untrusting to the visitors. We're still unsure if there will be an attack on that day or if there will be one anyway."

Everybody nodded.

Finally, after more talk of what is taking place at the festival, Tsunade spoke up. "Thank you for coming and we're going to meet again next week – exactly one week before the festival.

XxXx

It was just the four teams, the way it used to be; Rookie Nine and Team Gai were all together. They all sat down on the grassy fields of the training area, enjoying their lunches – Sakura the most since she'd barely eaten anything the previous night (she was rushing dinner to avoid her family) and the fact that she had no breakfast that morning.

"Sasuke." It was the voice of someone in their mid-forties.

Everybody turned their heads and saw Sakura's father, standing there with a stern face with a straight line for a smile. His greyish brown hair was combed neatly but blowing through the slight breeze.

"Is it true that you asked for my daughter's hand in marriage?"

Whispers suddenly came up as well as widened eyes and loud gasps.

"Damn," Sakura cursed beneath her breath, shaking her head.

"...Aa..." The Uchiha didn't sound as confident as usual.

Again, there were whispers among the four teams, but louder this time.

The man approached Sasuke and grabbed onto the collar of his shirt. "I don't accept. I don't want you to be with her, talk to her or touch her. You understand, Uchiha?"

Sasuke knew better to say anything, so he nodded. "Aa."

Sakura jumped up, pulling her father away from Sasuke and away from the crowd. When she got back (her father finally agreed to leave after thirty minutes of the rosette trying to convince him), all eyes were on her. She rolled her eyes. "Isn't it obvious that it's fake?"

In the end, Sakura – Sasuke stayed silent the entire time – explained how she went from behind his fake girlfriend to fake fiancee.

"Oh.." they all said.

Naruto sat there, nibbling on his food. He hadn't spoken during the entire time until he grabbed his water bottle, raising it in the air. "To Sasuke and Sakura Uchiha!" he joked.

XxXx

The group was eventually divided into sexes; males were on one side, below the shady trees, and females on the other. Some of them, however, were training or playing in the fields.

"Sasuke! You haven't even confessed yet and now you're engaged," Naruto cried out.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You're wrong, dobe. I _did_ confess, she just won't believe it."

"Well, then make her believe it!"

"Hn, I was 'drunk'. If I tell her, then she'll know I was pretending."

Shikamaru sighed as he watched the clouds between the branches of the trees, hearing Akamaru bark in the distance with Kiba playing with him. "But in situations like yours, wouldn't girls do the 'awe' thing because they find it sweet that you went through all that trouble?"

Naruto laughed. "No way! Sakura's definitely not the girly type!" He yelled.

"I'm not the what?!" It was Sakura. Although she was still a distance away from the males, with Naruto's loud voice, almost everybody heard him.

"Nothing!" The blond quickly replied, then turned around to his friends. This time, whispering his words, "And she gets mad easily too.."

XxXx

"So what are you going to do?" Tenten asked, pulling grass from the ground.

"Do about what?" Sakura asked. She took a small bite from a cupcake that Hinata baked. Her apple-green eyes moved to the side and stared at the chocolate brown ones that was talking to her.

"About Sasuke," Ino answered for the weapons mistress. She was laying on her belly and her chin was resting on her palm. "I mean, are you going to confess to him about your undying love for him?"

Sakura shook her head. "No!"

XxXx

"You should ask her out again. I mean, you _love_ her," Naruto teased.

Sasuke looked at him and scoffed. "Naruto, why do you want me and Sakura to be together so badly?"

The blond's eyes averted from Sasuke. "So..you owe me...and I can be the Godfather of your future children who I suggest you name after me." He grinned widely.

"No," Sasuke merely replied.

"Uchiha, you do realize Naruto won't stop bothering you until you be a man and ask her out."

XxXx

"He's already rejected me once, you know."

"Sakura, y..you were twelve then," a mouse like voice said.

"Then why should I humiliate myself again?"

Tenten let out a sigh. "Because we're your friends and we only want the best for you. You're going to regret it if you don't."

How Sakura hated the word 'regret'. In fact, she loathed that entire phrase; it always makes her give in.

"Besides," Ino added, "if you don't tell him, _we_ will."

XxXx

"Fine, I'll ask her out."

XxXx

"Fine, I'll confess to him."

* * *

**Note: The next few chapters are going to be pretty short.**

**Please review. :)**

**I'll see you guys next week!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Inspiration for this chapter:** I don't know, this chapter is just a continuation (sorta) from the last chapter. It's pretty short, sorry.

**First of all, I would like to say THANK YOU for all your wonderful reviews. I know I say that in like every chapter, but I really really mean it. I love it when you guys review me, it makes me jump up and down and smile soo much!**

**Secondly, it seems most of you are hating Sakura's cousin. I guess the way I write her, she is a bit...ew and stuff. Also, a lot of you are thinking that she's going to fall for Sasuke. Unfortunately, I decided to leave out the whole 'fangirl' thing cause I've kinda already used that in another fic of mine and it would be a bit annoying since its already so commonly used. To me, Yuki is just another Hinata...she prefers another type. Plus, since she was kinda raised so that she shouldn't be around ninjas, so I guess all that negativity was enough for her to dislike him in the beginning.  
**

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx

* * *

**

The next day, Sakura called her home after work, using the phone from the hospital.

"Hello?" It was her Aunt.

"Hi, it's Sakura. I have to work late tonight because some nins just got back from a mission and they need to be checked," she lied. Secretly, she had decided that today, no matter how embarrassed she was going to be, was the day she was going to confess to the same person for the second time and _possibly_ being rejected for a second time. It was the day she'd walk up to Sasuke and tell him that she–

Sakura shook her head. She couldn't even confess to him in her thoughts.

"Oh, okay. Do you want your cousin or someone to bring you dinner?" Out of her entire family (including her parents), it seemed that only her Aunt was the one who get back to her usual self after hearing her's and Sasuke's 'engagement'.

"No, it's okay. I have food here, thanks." Sakura hung up the phone, turning around and went to get her bag, grabbing her casual clothes out from it.

After changing, Sakura looked at the time. She had already called Sasuke, asking him to meet her at the training grounds – knowing her cousin was often out shopping and her Dad and Uncle were out somewhere. It was one of the few places she wouldn't get caught.

Sakura hurriedly ran to the fields. Her eyes squinted from the bright sunny rays and raised her arm to cover her face. Peaking in between her fingers, she could see the black sleeveless shirt that he was wearing.

She brushed her shoulder-length hair aside as she approached him. "Uh..hi?"

"Hn." He turned to face her.

XxXx

Sasuke couldn't believe his friends actually made him do _this_, being with Sakura. Alone. In the middle of a field.

Ironically enough, right when he was about to ask if she wanted to go out so they could talk, the rosette called him, asking the same thing.

He stood there silently, wondering if he should let her speak first of if he should – despite how much he knew he was going to regret it.

"I have something I want to say," Sakura started.

He watched as she fidgeted with her fingers.

"Well, you know how we've been pretending to be a couple?"

Sasuke's eyes instantly shot up. He started going through all the possible things she could say, asking himself if she was going to ask him to stop and leave her alone because it was too hard with him around.

Realizing that it could be his only chance, Sasuke interrupted her. "Takoyaki!"

"What?"

"I'm a bit hungry. Do you want to come?"

"Uh..sure."

XxXx

"Oh my God, he's hopeless!" Naruto yelled, peaking through the bushes nearby.

"Troublesome. Why are we here again?" The lazy boy asked.

"To make sure the Uchiha doesn't chicken out," Neji answered, amused. Suddenly, he turned around after hearing voices and footsteps coming from the trees and bushes behind them. The branches got pushed aside and a blond girl came out, talking to the tomboy and pale girl behind her.

"I can't believe she got interrupted!" Ino complained, then turned around. "Huh? What are you three doing here?"

Naruto took a second to face away from the couple they were spying on and saw the girls. "We're seeing if Sasuke's going to ask her out. What are _you_ doing here?"

Hinata took a step forward. "We're seeing if Sakura was going to confess her feelings to him."

"What? You mean she likes him too?"

Tenten shook her head. "More like _loves_ him."

Neji's arms were crossed. "We're not sure if he likes or loves Sakura , but the Uchiha has been going through a tough time with all his failed confessions."

Shikamaru suddenly gave a loud yawn, interrupting everybody else. "You know...they're leaving."

Excited, Naruto ran off, following the couple and leading the rest of his friends.

XxXx

Sakura watched as Sasuke ordered the takoyaki at the stand, handing a small plastic box to her.

"Thanks," she said, slowly eating the small piece of octopus.

There was an awkward silence between the two, both nibbling on their food and slowly walking around the small area – being paranoid, Sakura was constantly looking around at the people passing by at the same time she tried to force herself to open her mouth and speak. Steadily parting her lips, Sakura was instead cut off by Sasuke.

"Sakura," he took a deep breath, "there's something you should know." Sasuke paused, keeping focus only on their feet and the tan colored dirt. "What I told your family during dinner a few weeks ago.." His voice trailed off and he cleared his throat, planning to continue.

'_Everything I said up to the point where I told them I really like you was a lie,'_ Sakura could already imagine Sasuke saying those words and it made her freak out. Doing the only thing she could think of, Sakura raised her hand in the air.

"Wait. Can you hold on a sec?"

"What?"

"I...need to pee." The jade eyed girl mentally kicked – no, _strangled _– herself. Instantly, she ran away from the boy to the nearest public building and into their restroom, only to wash her face to clear her mind.

XxXx

"PEE?" Ino screamed (loudly), causing people nearby to stare at the crowd of six hiding behind a building. "What kind of excuse is that?"

Tenten shook her head. "So close...why did she have to interrupt him?"

Naruto shrugged, turning away from the quiet Hyuugas and Shikamaru who were still spying on Sasuke. "My legs hurt...when will they actually say something?" The blond complained.

"Uh," Hinata spoke up, "Sakura just came out..they're leaving."

XxXx

Not only had they continued to cut each other from saying anything, but the two had also made many excuses, telling the other they had to go places and run some errands. By the end of the day, Sasuke and Sakura were beginning to run out of ideas, going up the stairs to the top of the mountain with the Hokages' faces carved on.

Their spies, however, were exhausted, grumpy at their friends' failed confessions and dehydrated from following the two around the entire village. They hadn't given up though, watching the two silhouettes stand in front of the sunset and hoping that the romantic setting would help.

"Sasuke, I,"

"Sakura, I,"

Both spoke in unison, shying their faces away after.

"You go."

"Hn, you go."

"No, Sasuke, you go."

"Uhh.." Sasuke held his breath, coming up with the proper words. "Sakura, for many months now, I started to –"

"Sakura?"

The couple froze at the familiar voice – Sasuke praying it wasn't who he thought it was so he could continue and Sakura was begging it wasn't _him_ so she could finally say what she'd been trying to say all day.

Slowly, their heads turned around and saw the pair of dark brown eyes glaring back at them.

"I thought I told you I didn't want you two together anymore." His stern voice got louder as he approached the two.

"Dad," Sakura began. "I.."

XxXx

"Let me go get him!" Naruto yelled, only to be held back by the others whose grim faces didn't help lighten the situation.

"They were so close." Ino sighed, watching the man raise his voice at the pinkette.

XxXx

"Knock on my window tomorrow night. I have to talk to you," Sakura whispered, then obeying her Father and walking off.

* * *

**Although I never asked you to guess, congrats goes to lumierediva who guessed what was going to happen in this chapter correctly. Haha, I was like "wow" when I read the review. **

**I shall update again next week so I'll see you guys then. Until then, please review :)  
**


	12. Chapter 12

**HEY GUYS, HOW'S YOUR HALLOWEEN COMING ALONG?! Sorry it took me a few hours later than I usually did to update, my siblings wouldn't leave me alone and I _always_ need to be alone when I'm doing fanfic stuff. OMG, FOR GODS SAKE, YOU JUST LEFT THE ROOM, WHY WON'T YOU LEAVE LITTLE BROTHER!?!?**

**Anywhooo, I would like to thank ALL you guys for adding me to your alerts/favs list and reviewing! You guys make me feel soo happy :)**

**Da da da da, here's the chapter you've all been waiting for!**

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx**

She didn't speak to anybody when she got home, only climbing the stairs and her excuse for not having dinner was that she had hospital files that needed to be looked at. Even though it was unhealthy, the short girl was already used to it – mostly because of missions.

The day after, Sakura knew she _had_ to talk to her parents. They had interfered and annoyed her too much. But first, she sat on her bed, staring at a pile of pillows in the corner. She had planned to talk to her parents, but at the same time, she didn't want to. It was the same situation with Sasuke.

Suddenly, she wished she was as brave as Naruto or as blunt as Sai – it would've been helpful.

Sakura flipped over so that she was laying on her belly. She could hear her relatives talking downstairs, ready to leave to watch some theater – regular people were boring, in Sakura's opinion.

She didn't know why she had to suffer for almost a month because of them. Yuki was a ninja (in a way) for a day and they weren't _too_ affected by them. "Why can't I be a ninja around them for one day then?" She asked herself in a whining tone of voice.

Truthfully, she knew that if her relatives knew she was a real ninja, they wouldn't visit or talk to her parents anymore – why do they hate ninjas _that_ bad? They weren't _all_ dangerous – and she knew that would only upset them..

"Sakura, your Dad and I are going to leave now!" Her Mother yelled.

"No, wait!" She instantly yelled. Sakura covered her mouth. _'Shoot.'_

XxXx

Sakura quickly ran downstairs as fast as she could and met her parents. Sitting down on the couch, her eyes told her parents they should be too.

"I," she began, "want to know why you don't accept me and Sasuke together. I mean, you know everything is fake – even the engagement, I swear!"

A large sigh passed her father's lips as he rubbed his temples. His tired eyes scanned the floor before it reached Sakura's. "Your engagement was fake?"

Sakura nodded. "Yes, Dad. There was a little trouble and that was the only thing we came up with and then Grandma ended up finding out so...but it's fake!"

Her Father gave another exhale. "Alright, that makes me feel _a lot_ better..but," he stopped for a moment, "but I don't think I'm comfortable seeing my baby girl and some guy from her team kissing all the time like that. I know it doesn't mean anything, but still. I don't want you doing that, Sakura."

She nodded, glad it was finally settled. Sort of.

"And.." her dad began again, "I also don't want you two to be a pretend couple anymore."

"What?"

"Do you think you can just pretend break up?"

Sakura stared at her father, knowing that his overprotective fatherly instincts were the problem. "Why?" She asked.

"You're my only daughter, Sakura and you know your Mother and I really love you. We don't want to see you...you've been hurt once before by him. We just don't want you to get too...attached to him again."

Sakura closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them again. "I know you're only looking out for me, Dad, but even though at first it was all lies, even though I was young back then," she suddenly regained confidence, hoping that the feeling would stay long enough for when Sasuke arrives, "I really love him. I know you worry about me, but don't worry, I'll be okay," she assured them with a smile afterwards.

XxXx

It was late at night and Sakura finished washing the dishes from the dinner she had. Marching up the stairs, Sakura decided to use this opportunity of behind home alone to change into her usual outfit – red tank top with tan shorts – until she opened the door.

"I got tired of knocking on the window," Sasuke simply said, getting up from sitting on her bed.

"Sorry," she said and walked towards him. The room was suddenly lull, creating an awkward atmosphere between them.

Sakura's foot went in small circular motions of the rouge carpet by her cousin's mattress. She avoided the look in his eyes. Her confidence from earlier was still lingering. Unfortunately, the other side of her was full of shyness and was overpowering it. She could feel herself opening her mouth to speak but closing it after.

Sasuke was somewhat hesitating all his movements. Even when he blinked, he had to think twice before doing it again. He attempted to make a sound, hoping that it would come out in perfect sentences. However, it was Sakura who spoke first.

"Sasuke." She took in a _deep_ breath before continuing, "I love you....for real." Everything had went blank in her eyes. She was scared to go on, even if she had already begun. "I know that when we were young," she frequently paused to take in deep breaths and exhaling, "I was annoying and weak and you didn't like me...it hurt me a lot when I found out you didn't care." At the edges of her eyes, small droplets of water formed. Sakura's hands started to shake and she could feel them growing sweaty. "My heart ached so much, Sasuke and I've tried; I've really, really tried to move on," she stopped to sniff and her vision began growing blurry. Her eyes, however, were still focused on the man in front of her who watched back at her. She was just cry-talking now. "But, even after _all_ these years, I just...I just end up falling for you – the idiot who left me on a bench when we were twelve! I'm not pretending, Sasuke. I've fallen in love with you.. again."

The only sounds that could be heard was Sakura's sniffles. She wiped her tears away and darted her face back up, confidently staring at the pretty black orbs.

Sasuke turned his face – upwards, down, right, left – a small robotic circular rotation. He had pretty much scanned the entire bedroom, trying to reply.

"Hn," a sound finally came out.

However, Sakura looked troubled. With the many definitions of his grunts, she went through all her ideas; she was trying to imagine what he was trying to say, but with the memory of her previous rejection, she only had negative imaginations.

"Wh..what?" Sakura shakily asked.

Sasuke's eyes sparkled, looking to the side. He gave a smirk and gazed back at the emerald eyes.

"You..are being unreasonable." He leaned in closer to the frightened girl. "_I_ was supposed to say that first."

His hands gently cupped her face, pulling her into hm as he softly pressed his lips against hers. His hands moved away from her face, wrapping it around her waist and drawing her in so that there was no space between their bodies.

With every passing second, Sakura couldn't even tell how fast her heart beats were going. Her fingers were tangled in his silky, ebony hair. She could feel his lips arch into a _little_ smile – good enough, considering all he does is smirk.

In the beginning, their kisses were fake; they didn't mean anything. And now, for the first time, their kiss meant _everything_.

* * *

**Pretty short, I know, but they're together finally! :)**

**Please review and I hope you guys had a fun and happy Halloween!  
**


	13. Chapter 13

**Inspiration for this chapter: How grey it is outside....with the dark puffy clouds..Yeah. It's so pretty.**

**A/N: MUST READ - **I would like for you readers to know that as must as I appreciate you guys reviewing and everything, I'm awfully busy with school work and extracurricular activities, and not only that, but I've seem to lost my muse. I can't come up with any good ideas at the moment and I find myself rewriting the same chapter over and over again with no satisfaction. SO, I've concluded that because I'm not coming up with any new chapters, I will begin updating every OTHER week.

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx

* * *

**

"Hn," he greeted her when the two met up during Sakura's lunch break. His hands were hidden in his pockets as he casually stood at the edge of the pathway that led to the front door.

"Hello to you too," she said, smiling while pecking him on the lips. Cheerfully, the girl started walking passed him, humming a peaceful song.

A few days had passed since their confession and with Sakura's busy schedule, her lunch break was technically their (real) first date. It was a perfect day; a few puffy clouds roamed above them as the sun beams peaked through the branches, hitting the couple's face.

The pale man stayed silent during their walk, enjoying the woman next to him talk. His head turned, scanning the scenes around him – still listening to Sakura, of course – and stopped when they had arrived at their destination.

Despite him being insanely rich and raised to be somewhat of a gentlemen, Sasuke figured _fancy restaurant_ wouldn't be that great. After all, Sakura's lunch break had a time limit and it didn't look like she was _that_ into cheesy, romantic settings. Instead, it was a café with mini black tables set out everywhere.

The two sat down, ordering their food when the waiter came.

Nervously, Sakura stared at Sasuke who sat across from her. Really, the best time for a date would've been after work when the sun was setting and they could leave for dinner without a clock set for how fast they should eat. However, with the Festival's problem, both Sakura and Sasuke were extremely busy.

"So," Sakura gave a sly smile as she saw the waiter come in the corner of her eyes, "tell me about yourself."

Sasuke's lips pursed, hiding the faint amused smile on his face. "Hn," he started. "I don't like eating sweets nor do I like to talk much, but for you, I'll try to keep myself from being quiet," he said sarcastically and uncharacteristically. "My favorite color would have to be black and I'm – "

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Sasuke-kun, I already know all that stuff about you. Tell me something else!"

"– currently dating a girl who was my ex-fangirl and used to stalk me, so there's really no point in saying anything about myself."

Sakura stopped eating and she crossed her arms, giving a "hmph". She saw Sasuke give his signature smirk, opening his mouth to take a bite into the piece of meat.

"Why don't you talk about yourself, then?" Sasuke suddenly said as he looked up at her.

She gave a smile and started talking, giving every detail of her life – some, Sasuke already knew.

Sasuke stared at her the entire time – somehow managing to eat his food at the same time without dropping the food on his fork or spilling the glass that he reached out and magically grabbed without leaving the gaze on her. Strangely, he liked it when the girl talked. Sasuke knew that when he was younger, he found every bit of her voice annoying, but he figured that after he was finally alone, surrounded by complete silence, he missed that voice. After all, it did keep things entertaining; it also kept him from thinking too much – from worrying – like a distraction that he enjoyed.

A drop of liquid hit his cheek, startling him. He looked up, noticing the puffy clouds from before had grown, not only larger, but darker too.

"Oh, come on!" Sakura tried to laugh out. "Our first date and it rains!" She held her hands out to her sides, catching the rain as it began to pour harder.

Sasuke checked his watch – he rarely wore it, but because Sakura had to go back to work, he decided to let his arm carry a little extra weight – to check the time. "We still have a little over twenty-five minutes. What do you want to do?"

"Eat."

"What?"

Sakura laughed, playing with her already soaked hair. "Sasuke, you're barely done your lunch and neither am I. Besides, who knows when we'll both be free again?" She picked up her eating utensil and poked at her wet food.

Sasuke's one brow rose, questioning her sanity, but then shrugged, deciding that it wouldn't hurt to eat in the rain.

XxXx

Sakura approached the front door, opening and finding Naruto standing there.

"Hey Sakura!" He peeked inside to see if her family was around. When he was sure that they weren't he grinned. "Wanna come to train with me?"

She shook her head as her fingers tightened around the blanket wrapped around her. "Can't, I'm sick." Her 'm's and 'n's sounded like 'b's.

Naruto frowned. "Not you too...teme sounded exactly like you when he spoke over the phone."

Her face quickly shot up. "Sasuke-kun's sick?!"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, but he's in a horrible condition. I heard he passed out from a fever and was hospitalized this morning."

"What?!" Sakura dropped the warm blanket that secured her body temperature. "No, it's all my fault. I have to go see him," she said as she quickly slipped on her shoes and tried to walk past Naruto.

Suddenly, the blond gave a laughter, clutching his stomach for support.

A dark figure came out from hiding behind the fence and smirked, approaching the two.

"I can't believe you fell for it," he snickered. "Don't worry, Sakura," he reassured. "Sasuke's not sick. We heard from Ino that you were taking the day off and we–"

"_You_, not we," Sasuke interrupted.

"– thought it'd be funny to see how you would react."

Sakura growled, raising her fist to hurt the blond. But it started to shake as she rose it and with a yawn, she turned around, deciding that she'd save that hit for another day when she had enough strength. Exhausted, she picked up her blanket from the hardwood floors and wrapped it around herself again.

She sat on the sofa, not even bothering to glance back at the two who were still standing by the front door. "Uh huh..." Sakura mumbled. "Naruto...please shut the door when you guys leave. Thanks.." Without saying anything else, she drifted off to sleep.

XxXx

Slowly, the girl revealed her jade eyes, finding sky blue ones looking back.

"N...Naruto?" She yawned out.

He grinned. "Finally, you woke up! You didn't think we'd leave you here alone and sick, did you?"

_We_. She turned her head around towards the kitchen and could sniff the food. Her slender fingers removed the blanket around her while she stood from the sofa.

At that moment, Sasuke walked out. He was careful with every step he took since he carried food. The bowl was on a plate so that he wouldn't burn his hands and the steam coming from it was preventing Sakura from seeing his face.

"I made soup. Eat." He forced the rosette to sit back down.

She did as she was told as he gave her the spoon.

Emerald eyes sparkled as Sakura smiled, watching the Uchiha sit in front of her. "...Sasuke-kun?....Do you think you can feed me? My hands are too weak." She rose her hands slowly, showing how _fragile_ they were.

"Dobe, feed her," Sasuke commanded, leaning back on the chair he had pull up to the coffee table.

Naruto frowned. "No, she's your girlfriend. You feed her."

Sakura had a large frown painted on her face and furrowed her brows. "So neither of you will?" After a brief pause, Sakura reached her hands out, giving up and deciding to eat it herself, until it was picked up by somebody else.

Sasuke let out a sigh. "Open your mouth," he told her.

Sakura giggled, doing as told and enjoying the taste of her boyfriend's cooking.

_This is how I should be treated everyday_.

* * *

**Please review and I will see you guys in two weeks! (Yes, it is still on Friday as always.)**

**BY THE WAY, DID YOU GUYS READ THE LATEST CHAPTER OF NARUTO!?!?! Oh my gosh, I literally started crying...(Why, yes, I am that obsessed, thank you for noticing) and my eyes were glued to the computer screen. How could they do that to him!?!? (Haha, I'm not going to give any specific details just in case some of you haven't read it or don't read the manga).  
**


	14. Chapter 14

**So, like, I don't really like this chapter, cause I made up some random thing to get to this one scene I wanted to write.....so.....it's kinda strange.**

**Anyway.. Chapter's inspiration: **Picnic tables...I dunno, I was staring at one when I wrote this. Oh, I thought of another one. How people sometimes have _all_ the luck.

**A/N: Wow, all this homework almost made me forget about updating. But luckily, I remembered! How were the two weeks without me? Not that bad, right?**

**Anyway...WHO SAW TWILIGHT THE MOVIE?! I saw it last night (friend had tickets for advance screenings) and it was TOTALLY WICKED! I started mouthing along to some of their lines...and my friend had to stop be from breathing so hard...and like..I almost, _almost_ squealed very loudly.....and you can totally tell I'm OBSESSED. Yes, but aren't all Twilight-readers? Unless you're anti. Don't tell me that. I'm in a good mood right now.**

**Sigh...Edward......**

**Okay, story. Yes. Here's the chapter!**

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot (wow, I almost forgot my name for a moment there)**

**XxXx

* * *

  
**

A few days had passed and so did Sakura's cold.

"Grandma, what are you doing here?" Sakura asked, blankly staring at the woman as well as_ many_ elderly couples at the picnic table.

"We're enjoying the fresh air, dear," her Grandma explained.

Saklura's two male teammates were behind the rosette. All of them had the same expressions written on their faces; they were dumbfounded.

"Uh...Mrs. Haruno?" Naruto started. He actually liked talking to Sakura's family members. It made him sound..._smart_. "This is a...training field. Not a park."

The old woman shrugged. "Look at the size of this field! It's wasted space. Besides, how much room can your ... training take?" She gave them a look. "So we'll be enjoying our lunch here, and you boys can...throw your little knives over there." She pointed to the small area by the fields that was covered with bushes and tree stumps.

Sakura shook her head, not even sure how the group of seniors (ninja-haters, of course– they should really build a village_ just_ for them, Sakura mused) could even lift the picnic table and bring it _here_ without getting caught.

She knew that possibly, her Grandmother was behind this. The older woman had barely been talking to her since Sakura ran out of the house and even if she did speak up, it was because she had to get something from the rosette or it was an insult to either ninjas or Sasuke.

Her parents, however, were perfectly fine with everything (thanks to their little chat) and although her Aunt and Uncle got a little touchy each time they saw her with the Uchiha, they were completely normal when he wasn't around. Yuki wasn't even affected.

"But," Sakura began.

"You let Yuki come here without getting hurt. You're dating a ninja and you don't get hurt," – Sakura realized that her Grandmother was just doing this to counter against her being around Sasuke. She was annoying her on purpose.– "so why not let me and my friends enjoy our time?" Her Grandmother saidsomewhat innocently.

"We're not always the only ones here. It's too dangerous," Sasuke finally spoke up.

"They why did you bring Sakura here? As a.... _boyfriend_, shouldn't you be taking better care of her?"

Sasuke stumbled on his words, unsure of what to say. At that moment, they were supposed to be training and getting themselves ready for the festival.

Her Grandmother's lips were in a tight line as she turned back to her friends to continue to chat.

"Naruto and Sasuke-kun are here to train. I'm just here to check on their wounds. Don't worry, _Grandma_," she called through gritted teeth, "I'll be fine. But you and your friends should _leave_," she emphasized the last word.

A sigh passed the rouge lips. "Again, Yuki came home safely, so why can't those two train within the right distance. And if we do get hurt, we've got you, honey– the wonderful doctor you are. Who knows? Maybe we'll watch." The stubborn woman did not back down.

Sakura's eye twitched, really disliking her Grandmother at the moment. She always came up with the most craziest things that made Sakura unable to do anything.

"But...you hate– "

"Oh, Sakura, don't worry. I just want to see what Yuki found so... _interesting_ about this stuff. I'll only be watching for a bit anyway."

Again, Sakura frowned at being unable to train. With a sigh, she turned around and shook her head. She _could_ get them all arrested – it would help her _a lot _– but just the thought of her _entire_ family nagging at her for putting her own Grandmother behind bars changed the young girl's mind.

"What do we do?" Naruto whispered.

Sakura shrugged. "You guys go. I'll..._urgh_...watch. Again."

"Sakura, you've barely been training. The hospital shifts aren't as busy as they usually are right now. You should be using this time to train." Sasuke pointed out, muttering so that the group of probably deaf seniors wouldn't hear.

Sakura pressed her lips together, trying to come up with an idea. "I'll...tell my family I have night shifts or sneak out later tonight," she concluded. "Just try to cause as much damage as possible so they think it's too dangerous and leave when you guys fight, okay?"

The other two nodded.

XxXx

"Sakura, why are Sasuke's eyes red?" Her Grandmother gasped.

She sat not too far away from the seniors with her chin resting on the palm on her hands. Tired of all the elders' questions, the rosette didn't bother speaking and pretended to be too into the battle to hear.

Apple-green orbs finally peaked up when the blond and raven-haired boys stopped, falling back and panting – her Grandmother didn't even budge from the spot even though they purposely threw kunais in their direction (it missed, of course). Sakura hurried tot eh two, checking Naruto's injuries first until she heard a scream; it was Sasuke.

She rapidly turned around, panicked and saw him with both his hands held over his right eye. When she had got to him, the rosette kneeled down – she didn't notice that not only Naruto, but the group at the picnic table were drawn to the couple to see what the commotion was about.

"Sasuke, what's wrong?" Naruto asked, but was ignored. He knew better than repeat.

Her hands gently placed themselves on top of Sasuke's, guiding them downwards and off of his eye. She noted that his left eye had returned back to it's normal self. However, the right eye, through all the blood, was still in it's Sharingan state.

She tilted her head, studying his eye from every angle quickly. Biting her lip, she replied "I can only guess that you've been using your eyes too much .I'm pretty sure a blood vessel broke because of over usage," Sakura said, preventing the blood from running down his face with a clean cloth from her bag. She knew she shouldn't bandage it yet since his eyes were far more unique than the average and she had to carefully inspect it with all her proper tools at the hospital.

"Have you had previous injuries to it? Maybe that's the problem." All of a sudden, her nosy Grandmother spoke, startling Team 7.

"Yeah, you kids are too careless these days," one of the woman's friends spoke. It was followed by a series of agreements by the elderly.

Rolling her eyes, Sakura turned her head around. "Can you _please_ be quiet. I have to–"

"I told you it was rude to interrupt when someone older than you is talking, dear," her Grandmother said.

Frustrated, she tried to ignore them and tilted Sasuke's face up. At that moment, she had forgotten whether her Grandmother was there or not. Sasuke was too important to her – she just didn't care – and his sight was possibly on the line. Her one hand took off the cloth from his eye, noticing that the bleeding had stopped. The other hand rose and touched the area around his eye again, channeling small amounts of chakra to her fingertips.

Her breathing was heavy. Sakura wasn't frightened because her Grandma was there; she was really scared because she had never healed something so delicate like this before. Sure, she's healed the Hyuugas, but never has she seen a person's kekkei genkai start bleeding internally. Her assumption about a blood vessel breaking couldn't even be the matter since there could be over hundreds of possibilities of what had happened, especially because this was the Sharingan she was looking at.

Sakura's hand was about to glow green (she was prepared for her Grandmother's yells) when suddenly, Sasuke jerked back, holding onto his eye again. He kept his mouth closed, preventing himself from yelling from the pain.

"Dammit," she cursed.

"Watch your languag–"

"Are you still here?!" Sakura got up, clenching her hands into fists. "Because whatever you're doing, it's illegal to be in the middle of a freakin' field _and_ you're definitely not helping whatsoever. Got it?"

She turned over to the blond. "Naruto, make a clone. I'll need someone to go get the Hokage and someone to help me carry Sasuke-kun to the hospital." She spoke incredibly fast and luckily, Naruto caught every word she said.

She bent down to hold onto Sasuke's arm, helping him get up as one of Naruto's clones left.

"What did you just say to me, young lady?" The old woman shrieked.

Sakura took a deep breath as she walked away. "I'm telling you to mind your own business for once!" She knew running or jumping out of the area would cause wind pressure against Sasuke's eyes, so she and Naruto were walking, leaving the speechless old woman at the field

XxXx

"We've got an emergency," Sakura yelled as soon as she entered the hospital. Many nurses and medics rushed around the room, getting clipboards and a stretcher.

Naruto was forced to stay in the waiting room as Sakura brought Sasuke to a room where she had the proper tools.

She encountered Tsunade along the way and the two set the Uchiha onto his hospital bed, shining a light to each of his pupils. Tsunade listed a few details while Sakura took notes on the side.

She was relieved that Sasuke's eye was no longer bleeding and that the crimson color seemed to be fading into his original state. However, she was worried about what had happened.

"Sakura, look," Tsunade said and the kunoichi glanced over to what Tsunade was showing her.

"You were right. He did pop a blood vessel in here because he's been using it too much. It couldn't take the strain."

Sakura nodded.

"You know how to handle it from here, right?" Tsunade asked.

She replied with a nod again as the woman left the room. Sakura took over Tsunade's place and looked at his eye again. "You're going to be needing surgery," she told him.

Sasuke frowned. He never liked anything that took too much of his time. "Can't you use chakra and heal it now?"

Sakura shook her head. "I tried to use chakra on you earlier, remember? It's pretty painful and now that we've seen what's actually happened, it'll be easier if we put you to sleep because it's a complex procedure. Not only that, but it's still in the Sharingan form. Everything we do to it has to be precise or else it might not work again."

The surgery started immediately – Sakura decided that if they had waited, his eyesight would've been at greater risk.

* * *

**Okay, so it's another two weeks before I update! See you guys then and please review! You guys made me really happy last chapter, thanks.**

**Edit: Just so you guys know, so I don't get any reviews about this, everything that happened to Sakura was just pure luck so that her Grandmother still has no clue she's a ninja. Sakura never got a chance to actually use her chakra cause Sasuke backed off before she could and, as mentioned in the story, they couldn't just leap into the air and hurry to the hospital because the wind currents could make his eye worse....or something like that. I don't really remember why I did that since I wrote this a while ago..  
**


	15. Chapter 15

**Thanks guys for all of your reviews! I know after like, 15 chapters, all these thank yous don't really mean much, but your reviews really mean a lot to me.**

**Anyway, inspiration for this chapter? I'll tell you guys at the end. If I tell you know, it'll just spoil what's going to happen in this chapter...ish. **

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx

* * *

**

It was _very_ late – around two in the morning – when Sakura finished the operation. She plopped down on a chair next to his bed as the other medics left for home. Despite being exhausted, the girl didn't bother getting ready to go home; she knew there would be hell if she did. Instead, she stared at him the entire time.

His sleeping face was just as stunning as ever, even though he had a bandage around his head and eye. There was just a quality about him that made him ...beautiful, even when he was injured. His lips, she noticed, were slightly parted when he slept so during that silent moment, she could hear him breathing.

After a few hours, she saw movement.

His fingers slowly brushed his bangs away from his face, but flinched due to the pain so Sakura's skinny fingers reached out, only to brush it away for him.

One eye opened – for a moment, it reminded Sakura of Kakashi – and the Uchiha smirked.

"Hn," he greeted her. "Go. You need sleep." He knew she wasn't the type to rest whenever she got the chance; she was always overworking and worrying.

With a smile, she helped him sit up. Ignoring what he had just said, she replied, "Does your eye hurt?"

He nodded. "A bit. How long will I have this on for?" He lightly touched the bandages that wrapped around the forehead, feeling a small ache.

"It should heal pretty fast if I check on it often. It was a good thing that only a small blood vessel popped or else I wouldn't have known what to do if anything else happened to your Sharingan." She smiled again. "But... because it has to be closed, its either you use bandages which will have to be changed often.... or an eyepatch." She pressed her lips, hiding her grin.

He frowned. "Eyepatch?"

She nodded, still grinning at the idea of Sasuke and an eyepatch. She kissed him on his left cheek – away from the injury – and said, "I'll get us a late night snack." Sakura got up, walking to the door but turned around. "And Sasuke-kun?"

"Aa?"

"I find eye patches... _sexy_."

XxXx

He could feel all their eyes on him as soon as he entered the room – especially from the wicked old lady. Of course, he did _not_ want to be look like an idiot – despite what Sakura _and_ Naruto said – so he rejected the idea of wearing an eyepatch. Instead, there was just a bandage strapped around his head and on his eye. There was also a constant urge to touch it – Sakura made it mandatory that nothing could go near his face unless it was her (kissing, healing, no difference) – since it was irritating him.

Sasuke noticed that her parents were the first to turn around, back to their usual activities. His one eye trailed the entire room, watching her Aunt and Uncle's shock to his face, her cousin – who he foundtwice as annoying as anybody he's ever met, including Naruto and fangirl Sakura – was staring back at him, possibly questioning why his eye was bandaged. Then, he saw _The Grandmother_.

He could clearly remember his girlfriend _scream_ (not only pain form his eyes at that time, but his ears too) at the elderly woman. Much to his surprise, he actually felt shaken by that old woman (who wouldn't?).

Her eyes – more icy than his own – stared directly at him, causing the Uchiha to wonder if she had gotten into another argument with Sakura.

"Son, what happened?"

The boy rolled his eye, wondering when Sakura would come downstairs.

Sasuke immediately turned to her Uncle. "Uh..I hurt it during training." He didn't bother going into the real story since he knew it was the only answer he could give without having to go into further explanation.

Sasuke heard a huff from the elderly woman.

"His eyes were glowing blood red!" The woman exclaimed to Sakura's aunt on the side of the room. "He looked like a murderer or something!"

Luckily for him, the rosette came tumbling downstairs. She ran to her parents, telling them where she'd be, but when she turned around to face her relatives, her expression somewhat froze.

Sasuke's only prediction was that they yelled at her the moment she got home from the hospital – he felt a bit guilty, knowing that it was his fault even though he never intentionally damaged his eye.

She walked towards him and he turned to open the door.

It was officially one week before the Festival and they had to meet the Hokage for further instructions – minimal rules, they assumed, since most were laid out the week before. Not a lot of things could be planned out, considering most questions couldn't be answered until the actual day of the Festival. Besides, it's true that there was a spy, but who's to say they're going to attack on that specific day or attack at all?

XxXx

"– and then, she starts freakin' screaming at me for embarrassing her in front of her friends and my Uncle jumps in and says that he's always known you were a bad influence just because you were a _ninja_ and even though my parents tried to defend me, my Grandmother manages to shut them up and threatened to kick me out of the house because of how _irresponsible_ I've been!" Sakura took a moment to calm herself and take a breather.

"Hn."

She managed to pull a smile. "So yeah, my relatives are officially not fond of us...well you more than me because I'm family...they can't do much to me. _And_ they want us to break our _engagement_ even though I don't have a ring on my finger, so maybe they should get a clue that it's not true, but then again, that would mean you'll have to get engaged, oh my gosh, this is so hard!"

Sakura was finally silent and stopped walking, waiting for Sasuke to do the same. When he did, she reached out her hand and gently caressed the side of his cheek. "Sorry."

Sasuke looked to the side. "It's not like I wanted to please them."

Sakura giggled. "Yeah, well."

The two continued to head towards the Hokage's office.

XxXx

During the entire meeting, the blond woman had just filled the shinobi with more information, none Sakura found important – _every_ amount of detail is important, she remembered Tsunade telling her once – but she listened carefully anyway.

"Sakura, Sasuke, I need to talk to you two," Tsunade called out after the others were dismissed from the meeting.

The two turned around as Tsunade pulled out a few files from her desk drawer.

"We have our own spies just a few miles away from Konoha. It's a building on an empty road that's near a small village – many people go there actually, so it's crowded – and it's called _Club Cupid_. We've received some news that they have something I should look at. I would like you two to go there and get it _without_ blowing their cover or yours. You are to leave tonight."

Both nodded.

"Sasuke, the reason I chose you was because of your eye injury. I'm afraid that even though you didn't want them, you are going to have to replace those bandages with an eyepatch which will blend in _perfectly_ with the crowd," – Sasuke frowned when he heard Sakura's small snicker – "and Sakura, your... supplies are with Shizune outside of this room. She'll give you the bag when you leave. I've already alerted the guards. They know you're leaving."

When the two left, Sakura got her bag and Sasuke was sent to the hospital to get his bandages taken off and replaced with an eyepatch.

XxXx

"When will my eye finish healing?" He asked.

Sakura turned to him. "It'll be a few more days so probably be after the mission is over."

They quickly left the village – Sakura had told her family that she was picked along with the other doctors to go heal someone in another village (her Grandmother was quite suspicious, asking many questions) – and walked down the dark roads.

"Do you know where you're going?" Sasuke suddenly asked.

A pink brow rose and Sakura grinned. "You've never been to _Club Cupid_, have you?"

Sasuke shook his head, though with the skies being so dark, he wasn't sure that she saw so he told her, "No." He heard a laugh. "What?"

Sakura licked her lips. "_Club Cupid_ is a....strip joint."

XxXx

They knew they were supposed to arrive at the club during nighttime, but by the time they had arrive at the destination, it was near morning so Sasuke and Sakura went to the nearby village and entered a motel.

"What do you mean there's only _one_ bed?"

The girl at the counter nervously backed away from the angry kunoichi. "W...well, I'm sorry, but if you want two beds, you'll have to pay for t...two rooms."

_I only have money to pay twice, but that's for when we finish the mission_, she thought, before slamming the money on the desk "Fine," she spat out.

The frightened girl handed her the keys, watching the dark haired man follow the pinkette to their room.

Sasuke wasn't sure why Sakura was stomping, but he stayed a distance from her until they got to their room. He saw it; there was only – it was a small room too, barely any floor space – _one_ bed.

"Uh," Sasuke turned to Sakura who had fell onto the bed, in and exhaling. _Where do I...._

He shook his head, deciding to look at the mission report and read it first.

Suddenly, Sakura stood, opening the bag and pulling items out, taking them with her into the washroom.

He took this as an opportunity to lay on the bed and rest. After all, if she came back, they could just share it. Sasuke shuddered, getting an image of Sakura punching and kicking him off it. Slowly, he placed the files on the side and closed his eye, still irritated by his other eye.

A few hours later, he woke up, hearing the door open. He glanced towards the washroom where Sakura stepped out. Quickly, he shot his body up, staring at the _strange_ girl in front of him.

"..Y...Your hair..."

Sakura chuckled, combing her fingers through her new dark brown hair. "Yeah, pink is very noticeable and easy to remember so I always dye it when I'm on these missions."

Sasuke took a moment to recover. "You've...been on missions like _this_ before?"

The 'brunette' walked over and sat on the bed next to him. "Of course." She winked at him. "Jealous?"

Sasuke's eye closed as he shook his head in confusion. "Wait...When?"

She looked up, thinking before she answered, "I...think it was two, maybe three years after you left for Sound."

Sasuke's mouth opened, but nothing came out. He was speechless. It wasn't until after his many attempts to speak that words actually came out. "Weren't you only fifteen?"

Her jade eyes moved across the room, hoping that by looking away, she could hide her large grin; jealous, overprotective Sasuke was _way_ more fun than regular Sasuke, Sakura mused inwardly. Finally, she faced him.

"Don't worry, Sasuke-kun. If you're worried, I promise you, I haven't done _that_ yet." She laid down, resting her head on the pillow, but turned to her side to look up at the frustrated Uchiha. "You know," she started, "I'm willing to share my bed with you." She grinned.

Giving up, Sasuke decided to lay down next to her. There was really no point in questioning her and her previous missions; Sasuke did _not_ want to know anyway.

Smiling, Sakura reached out and grabbed his hand, gently squeezing it. "If it helps, you were my first kiss."

Sasuke looked at her – again, confused. "You've been on missions like those and you haven't kissed anyone until me?"

She nodded. "Of course. I _kill_ them all before they can really touch me."

His brows furrowed. "Kill....?"

Again, she nodded. "Yeah, I'm a medic. I can just make them bleed internally or blow their kidneys up...yeah. Stuff like that." She laughed gently, kissing the corner of his lips, noticing that he hesitated for a moment. "Good night Sasuke-kun," she yawned. "And don't worry. Just get on my good side and I won't wear poison on my lipstick next time I kiss you."

Sasuke tried to smirk as he wrapped his arm around her. The girl quickly drifted off to sleep but all Sasuke could think about for the rest of the night was _what_ was in her supply bag that the Hokage gave her?

* * *

**So what was my inspiration? Pirates of the Caribbean...even though none of them really had eye patches...Actually, I don't remember. Maybe one or two did.**

**Oh, and disclaimer: The name, _Club Cupid_, doesn't belong to me. I got it from a manga I read, _Princess Ai_. It's an okay manga, but kinda strange.**

**Anyway, please review and I'll see you guys again in two weeks! :)  
**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: **Ohmygosh, I'm **so** sorry for forgetting to update last night (I didn't even remember until around three in the morning when I suddenly woke up). I apologize!!

Also, another thing, I would like to say that I'm going on a _temporary _hiatus from fanfiction for maybe...three to four weeks? Maybe a bit longer. But considering it's the holidays, I would like to have some time off to actually finish writing and typing up _My Pretend Boyfriend_ since I normally had at least five chapters done ahead of time, but now I have only two. (Consider this, would you rather have me update daily still and wait months and months and months for the next update or would you wait only a month and then have me update daily again?). This break is also for actually starting to update my other fic (which, if you have read, thank you for being patient with me) and post a few oneshots that I've been meaning to post.

I think I will be back after my exams which is sometime in late January to early February.

**Inspiration for this chapter:** Lace...and stuff

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx

* * *

**

It was later in the afternoon the next day, when the two finished getting ready – actually, only Sasuke was, Sakura was still in the washroom.

"Sasuke-kun, you know what you're doing, right?" She yelled from the bathroom.

"Aa," Sasuke loudly replied.

There were two spies in the club; one was male, the other female. Sasuke's job was to sit on the second stool to the right when coming into the building at the bar. A stripper was to come and offer him a drink.

"Only if you stay here..with me.." Sasuke muttered, rehearsing his lines. He frowned, disliking the mission already.

Afterwards, she would slip him a piece of paper as she handed him the drink and then he would be free to leave.

Sasuke looked at the door, waiting for the kunoichi (who also had _The Bag _in there with her). Patience was one of the qualities he was never good at. Turning the knob, he said, "Sakura, what are you doing? Hurr–" He was cut off at the sight of her.

His face instantly turned a bright shade of pink, though his sight never left Sakura wearing black, lacy briefs that had pink ribbon running down her hips along with a fishnet stocking on one leg (it was slightly torn) and black stilettos. Her top was sleeveless and had pink laces in the middle below her cleavage.

Sakura giggled. "Sasuke-kun, if you keep staring, that eye patch of ours will pop and your eye will bleed again," she told him, putting a coat on her to cover her costume.

Regaining consciousness, Sasuke gulped and turned away, still a bright shade of pink. "R..R.... Right. Let's go."

XxXx

"I'm going to enter through the back, you go into the front entrance," Sakura told him when she could see the building peaking over the horizon. "Try not to make too big of an entrance."

"You won't get mad if I get swarmed by strippers when I go in?" He smirked.

Sakura rolled her eyes, turning to her right to separate from the Uchiha. "Stop flattering yourself. And no, as long as you don't go overboard, I won't kill you." She smiled again and quickly headed for the back of the building.

After she was gone, Sasuke slowed his steps, peering at a few men who were also entering. It wasn't until after he went into the club that he became somewhat nervous. With the darkness and bright lights shining from all corners, the smell of alcohol burned his nostrils, loud laughter from drunken men and strippers dancing everywhere. _This is where Sakura worked when she was fifteen_.

He shook his head, letting out a sigh and hoped Sakura would be careful; he already didn't like the place.

Doing as planned, he went for the bar where a crowd of what he could only assume were businessmen stood. Luckily, the second stool he was supposed to sit on wasn't occupied. Sitting down, he fidgeted with the cuffs of his shirt. He eyed the entire room, wondering which girl was the spy he was looking for. They all looked the same in his opinion; fishnets, skin, makeup and probably surgery on every part of their body.

He then studied every woman's face, trying to find the familiar jade eyes. He stopped scanning the room when he saw someone who might've been his girlfriend. Gritting his teeth, Sasuke's fists also clenched when he saw the girl – still not completely sure if it was Sakura since she kept _moving _– sit on a man's lap, turning away from Sasuke's direction.

Turning to the side, he saw the drunk businessmen laugh with glasses held in the air. The logo on one of the men's tie seemed familiar. Sasuke remembered seeing it in Konoha.

"Hey," Sasuke called out for one of them.

A sober man who sat on a nearby stool turned his head. "Ya talkin' to me?"

"What is the Yuma company doing here?" Sasuke asked, still looking in the corner of his eye for any approaching strippers.

The man looked closely at Sasuke. "Ohh," he whispered, realizing the Uchiha was on a mission. "Shh...we're not supposed to be here."

Sasuke's brows furrowed. "How did you get out of the village?" Sasuke knew that Tsunade had a lot of guards on patrol (secretly, of course, so no one would notice) and that leaving the village would now require identification and reason as well as permission.

The man answered, "The Yuma company is one of the largest. We're imperative to the village's economy. Not everything can be covered by the income of...you know, shinobi," he muttered. "We had to go and make a deal with another company. Just don't tell the Hokage we came here, kay?" He winked and turned back to his friends.

XxXx

"Well, well," a female spoke, startling Sasuke. He turned, expecting the stripper, only to find the girl he was thinking about.

Sakura's lips that were a bright red smiled as she got even closer to Sasuke with an arm hung around his neck. "She's running a little late, okay?" She whispered in his ear.

Sasuke nodded. "Are you already done?" he asked.

"Yup, got the info." Kicking off her probably uncomfortable high heels, Sakura sat next to him and sighed.

He looked at her and was shocked. "Did...someone tear your shirt?" He noticed a large rip on the side.

Sakura pursed her lips. "Hmm..oh yeah, some old guy started touching me. I was surprised so I yanked away. Don't worry, I didn't blow our cover." she looked over at him. "I did a little dance and he completely forgot about my odd reaction," she said happily.

Sasuke growled, glaring at Sakura. His one arm was suddenly wrapped around her waist, pulling her in. "I don't care if you blow our cover, Sakura," he snarled. "_But_, I will make sure this is the last time you go in one of these places." He pressed his lips on hers, refusing to let go until he needed to breathe.

"Sasuke Uchiha?" A voice asked.

Automatically, Sasuke decided that _now_ would be wise to start breathing. He stopped his kiss and muttered to Sakura, "Leave" before she hid her face and hurriedly walked away.

He turned around and saw the red faced, – he'd been drinking– bald man. From his uniform, Sasuke could tell he was also from the Yuma company.

_Crap._

He seemed to be angry. "What are _you_ doing here?" Very angry.

XxXx

Sakura couldn't stop panting. What was her _uncle_ doing _here_?

Stopping by the restroom, she hid behind a large beam and peaked over to the bar where Sasuke was (obviously) nervous, – she could tell even if his face didn't show it – talking to her uncle.

XxXx

"Che, I knew it," the man spat. "You're the type that gets an innocent girl to fall for you, gets her engaged and when she's gone with the hospital crew, helping the unfortunate, you come in _here_ to have fun."

For a moment, Sasuke had forgotten the two were 'engaged' – although he did like the sound of it – but he quickly regained focus, turning to the man. "I'm just here for a drink, sir."

"You lie. I saw that girl give you a lap dance!"

Sasuke blinked a few times. Technically, Sakura just sat on his lap; she didn't do a dance. However, the only bright side was that her uncle never saw her face (he understood now why pink hair would cause trouble).

"I was just sitting here. She voluntarily did that." Sasuke said the only thing he could think of. Gulping, the Uchiha bravely looked at the man with glasses in the eye, hoping that he'd buy it.

He didn't.

"That doesn't give you a reason as to why – out of all the other bars – you'd be drinking _here_!"

He didn't respond and took a moment to come up with an answer.

"My, my. An eyepatch. How....dangerous," a female spoke.

Both Sasuke and Sakura's uncle turned to a redhead smiling at them.

Sasuke cursed furiously in his head, knowing that she was the woman who was supposed to give him the information.

"Hn," he started. He decided to go on with the mission – he really didn't care if her entire family hated him. As long as Sakura was still with him – and smirked.

"Can I get you...a drink?" She asked, moving towards him. Her eyes sparkled in the neon lights and she reached out her hand to caress his pale face.

He did as the mission instructed, reaching out his own hand and placing it on top of hers. His other arm stretched out to grab her waist, tugging her onto his lap just like he did with Sakura. "Only if you stay with me," he cooly replied.

In the corner of his eye, he could see Sakura's uncle, gasping and frowning at the charcoal haired man's actions.

"You don't deserve my niece," Sasuke heard him mutter before leaving.

Letting out a sigh of relief now that the man was gone, Sasuke waited as time passed. He accepted whatever the woman ordered, taking the glass from her hand (there was a slip of paper between the hand and glass) and sneakily hiding the paper while gulping down the drink. To make it less suspicious, he let her dance around him (he _really_ wanted it to be Sakura instead of her) and it was a while before she finally left.

"Oh my–" Sakura murmured. "Dammit, what are we going to do?" She said after they met up outside of the strip club (they had to exit through different entrances).

Sasuke sighed. "You could tell your Aunt and cousin that he was there first," he muttered, receiving a glare from his girlfriend.

"Of all the times, you choose _this_ time to tell me the first joke I've ever heard you say!" Frustrated, she combed her fingers through the brown hair.

After a bit of walking, they arrived at the motel again and Sasuke was sitting up on the bed, watching Sakura walk back and forth.

"Sakura."

"I need a shower. I'm going to calm myself down, get rid of this hair color and then, I can think of a possible explanation for the family!" Sakura rushed her words, grabbing clothes out of her bag and headed for the washroom.

"Sakura," Sasuke repeated again.

"Yeah?" She turned around right when she twisted the knob of the bathroom door.

"One, the Yuma company shouldn't be home for a few days, so stop worrying. And two, isn't there another problem?" Sasuke, sensing her questioning silence decided to continue. "You can't work at those places anymore."

Frowning, Sakura placed her clothes on the washroom counter and her hands landed on her hips. "_You_ are _not_ the boss of me, Sasuke Uchiha. _You_ cannot tell _me_ what missions to take or not, got that?"

Sasuke got off of the bed so that their eyes would meet. "No," he simply said.

Sakura took his reply with shock. "Wh– "

"No. I will _not_ let anybody touch you like that, never!" He cupped his hands on the sides of her face. "Sakura...you're too special; you're too important to me," he softly spoke, "Sakura...I love you too much to let you do that...I..." He leaned in, pressing his lips against hers. It was softer than when they were at the club – gentler.

She kissed him back, feeling tears in her eyes. It was only after realization and the need to breathe that she broke their kiss. She swallowed. "I...Sasuke, I can't. I'm a kunoichi. It's my job.."

"Isn't there any way you can– "

"No...there isn't," she quickly replied.

Sasuke frowned. "You're lying. What is it? Tell me."

Sakura shook her head, entering the bathroom. Before she shut the door, she muttered, "Sasuke.. there isn't a way."

* * *

**Please review :)**

**My next update will either be January 30th or February 6th. If not, maybe earlier (depends on my exams). Until then, I wish you all to have a wonderful and happy (and safe) holiday!  
**


	17. Chapter 17

**HI GUYS!!! Did you miss me or did you just mutter, "oh crap, she's back"? :D ANYWAY, so how were your holidays and breaks and EXAMS!? I know mine were miserably disgusting. Overall, I didn't have that much time to start writing new chapters like I had planned, but don't worry, I'm still planning to update regularly like I did (once every two weeks, not one week).**

**So, uhm. Inspiration for this chapter: **Staring up to the sky in the middle of the night hoping to find stars but all I saw was a blank sky.

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx**

* * *

"Do you know how I can get Sakura to stop going on _those_ missions?" He asked furiously as he entered the flower shop.

Sakura's best friend rolled her eyes. "If by 'those', you mean seduction missions, no." She looked back at him. "Oh, I see your eye is a lot better." She saw that his face was no longer bandaged. "Though I have to admit...when you had your eyepatch, it was pretty se–"

Sasuke interrupted, "How were the kunoichis chosen to go on them?" He wondered if there was any way to reverse the whole thing.

Ino answered, "Well, they're chosen based on skill and how efficient it would be to kill or receive information. Like, Sakura. She's a skilled medic. Did you know she'd gotten rid of the most wanted criminals since she's started those missions?"

The response only made the Uchiha angrier. "Anything else?"

"Um....Oh, Hinata and I weren't chosen because we came from clans."

"What?" He gave a puzzled look.

Ino nodded. "Heiresses and people from prestigious families aren't allowed to go on those missions unless its urgent. Apparently, it's cause we're 'too important' for the sake of future generations or whatever." She paused for a moment to rearrange some flowers. "You should talk to Neji Hyuuga actually. I think he got Tenten out of–" She didn't finish before Sasuke stormed out. Ino gave a sly smile. "Good luck, lover-boy."

XxXx

He impatiently knocked on the main gates, waiting for someone to come and let him in. Continuously sighing, he raised his arm to knock again.

"May I help you?" a man said after opening the door to Sasuke's forth knock.

"I need to talk to Neji."

The man nodded. "Please wait here, sir. I will go get him." He turned around only to be greeted by the Hyuuga, himself.

"It's okay," Neji said, waiting for the man to leave. He approached the front doors. "You wanted to see me, Uchiha?"

"Aa," Sasuke confidently said. "I heard you got Tenten out of the seduction missions. I want to know how."

Neji stared back at the obsidian eyes. His lips formed a straight line. "You should come in and sit down." He turned to the side, freeing the pathway and letting the confused Uchiha enter.

"Tenten and I have been on the same team for many years," he paused, "and I have to admit, I grew a liking towards her.

"Both she and Sakura, however, do not come from any clans. In other words, towards many citizens of Konoha as well as the elders, they do not find shinobi like them to be as... significant merely because they don't have a powerful bloodline." He stopped and looked up at the emotionless face.

"However, just as you didn't want Sakura to, I didn't want Tenten to go to those missions either. Tenten and I... we're not as close as you and Sakura. The closest thing we are right now is friends– "

"But you like her."

"Yes..I do, but I was just saying that even if we were friends, I decided that if she wasn't born within a clan, I can just.. Get her to be a part of a clan. So both I and Hiashi – because he's currently the Hyuuga clan leader – signed a contract. You'll have to promise that no matter what happens, you'll–" He didn't finish before Sasuke abruptly left.

XxXx

"Sasuke, where are we going?" Sakura asked, constantly lifting her hand to play with the blindfold she had on, only to put it back down when Sasuke grabbed hold of it.

"Hn, just wait." When he stopped walking, he pulled the girl back so she'd stop too. "Sit," he commanded.

She slowly did as she was told, still wondering what he was up to. "Can I take the blindfold off now?"

"Aa."

Sakura's fingers ran up her face to pull away the dark cloth and blinked a few times afterwards to adjust her vision. "Are...we at the main gates?" She looked around, noticing many guards nearby.

"I already spoke to them. They're not going to bother us," Sasuke said, looking at the corner of his eyes and watched a few nins walk around the area.

Sakura slowly nodded, confused. "W...Why are we here anyway? I'm not very fond of _this_ bench, you know," she said, hinting about the past memories.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "It's a nice spot."

"......For what?"

He smirked, placing a hand on her back and the other pushed her gently down so that she would lay down on the bench.

"O..Okay, Sasuke-kun. I _really_ don't like laying down on _this_ bench!" She yelped.

He sighed. "Look up."

Carefully, the girl glanced up at the sky, staring at the hundreds and possibly thousands of stars in the night sky. She took a moment to take it all in while she could feel both the cool air and Sasuke's breathing along her bare arms, giving her goose bumps, but she didn't mind.

"Oh my – It's...." She couldn't describe it. The many twinkling dots in the sky amazed her. She knew that it was the same night sky she would stare at every night, but she was never really seeing. And now that Sasuke showed her this, she could really see what it was made out of.

Sakura's mouth parted as she gasped in the cool air.

Sasuke was crouching down next to her and they both watched the night sky for a moment until Sakura faced him. "Sasuke-kun...I.."

She sat up and he stood.

He closed his eyes for a moment, only to open them again. "Sakura," he said, kneeling down so they were at eye level. He then gently placed his hand on the side of her fact to direct her towards the gate walls behind her. There was a large white sign that took up a lot of space and was nailed to the wall. On it was perfectly scripted writing.

Sakura's jade eyes widened, reading and rereading the sign.

_Marry Me_

Her head instantly turned to face the man in front of her who was already on his knee. The pink brows arched as she wasn't sure how to think properly. Breathing in an almost hyperventilation- manner, the rosette ran both hands through her hair, pushing the strands out of her eyes so that she could see more clearly – hoping that what she'd just saw wasn't true and that it was pure imagination. It was not.

"Sakura," Sasuke started.

Immediately, Sakura shut both of her ears to block out all noise. "No!" She yelled, shocking him. However, what she was about to say was completely different from what he was thinking. "You can't. Not for me, no!" She looked up, eyes almost in tears. "Sasuke-kun, just because Neji did it for Tenten...Just because... you don't want me to work like that doesn't mean you have to give up your future to be with me!"

His teeth clenched and he quickly got up to his feet so that Sakura had to look up at him from the bench. "Sakura, do you really believe I'm giving up _any_ future?!"

"Ye–"

"Don't you understand how much I am in love with you?! That I rather spend eternity with you than with anybody else?" He paused. "Sakura, of all the years you've known me, have you ever seen me have a _full_ conversation with another girl but you?"

"Wel– "

"Have you?" Sasuke was yelling.

She shook her head mutely.

"Exactly! Sakura, I can't picture my life with anybody else but you, so whether its now or in three, maybe five years, the _only_ person I will be proposing to is you!" He stopped to take a breath. Sasuke was definitely not expecting himself to speak so loudly.

After a few exhales, he finally calmed down. "Sakura," his voice was softer this time, "I care about you too much. If you were to leave, to be treated like _that_ by anybody.. You might as well have me follow you around all the time, because I _refuse_ to stay at home when for all I know, some guy might be – "

Her lips were trembling at this point.

"Sasuke-kun." Sakura looked straight back at his eyes, only to realize that she was crying – _again_. She pressed her mouth together to hide her smile at Sasuke's uncharacteristic face that moment (he was _so_ frustrated). Her gaze left his eyes for a moment, scanning the area and looking up once or twice to glance at the stars again, it was a while before her eyes went back to looking at his face.

Taking a deep breath, she finally continued. "You know.. Proposing to me at the _exact_ spot you rejected me all those years ago isn't very... convincing." She sniffed.

The Uchiha sighed, crouching down on his knees again. Suddenly, he reached into his pocket to reveal a navy coloured case and opened it.

Inside was a ring; a golden band with a diamond in the middle. It was as brilliant as the night sky, twinkling at every angle. On either sides were small rubies that were a darker shade of Sakura's cerise hair.

Sasuke gulped, blinking a few more times. "Can... I take that as a yes?" He asked.

Sakura's chest shook as she covered her mouth with her hand to prevent herself from giggling – her eyes were still very watery though. "Sasuke-kun, most people stick with 'will you marry me'" She gave a bright smiled again, causing her eyes to squint where a few droplets of tears fell.

"But either way...yes. Yes, Sasuke-kun. I _will_ marry you."

* * *

**It's a little short, but yeah, they went from pretend dating to actually dating to pretend engagement to being engaged. And all within a month too..**

**:) Please review and I'll see you guys again in two weeks.  
**


	18. Chapter 18

_**Thank you**_** SO much for your reviews guys! I'm soo happy :)**

**Inspiration for this chapter: Alarm clocks. This chapter has nothing to do with it...I just remembered staring at the clock for a very long time until I knew what to do with the chapter.**

**Enjoy.**

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXX

* * *

**

He gently reached for her left hand, running his own over each of her delicate fingers. Pulling the ring out of it's case, Sasuke looked up at the girl before him who still had tears (of happiness) in her eyes. He smiled – not smirk, _smile_– at her too. Carefully, he placed the ring onto her fourth finger and when he finally let go of her hand, he jumped up on his feet, grabbing her by the waist and lifted her. He took a few steps back until she was far enough from the bench and spun her around in circles.

She laughed. "We're engaged!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.

Suddenly, there was a roar of clapping and the Uchiha stopped spinning her – he still held onto her though. The two heads turned to their side, only to find their closest friends – including the Hokage, herself – standing just a few feet away.

"Congratulations!" They all cheered, still clapping at the couple.

Sasuke looked to the side and his for-real-this-time-finacee blushed.

"How..did you guys know?" Sakura asked, constantly fidgeting with her ring – she _loved_ the feeling of it on her hand; it felt so special, so right.

"The guards over there told the Hokage that Sasuke was planning something over here." Kakashi answered. "So she got Naruto and I to go see what the commotion was about."

"Yeah, teme," Naruto chuckled. "We all thought you were planning to leave the village again. I started freaking out when I saw you laying Sakura on the bench, but then we saw that," he pointed to the large sign in the back that said 'Marry Me' and continued, "and we decided to call everyone."

"Hn... how long were you here for?" Sasuke suddenly asked.

It was Shikamaru who answered this time. "If you mean how much did we hear? We heard _everything_."

Sakura laughed and kissed the Uchiha on the cheek. "Awe, Sasu-kun." She teased with her new nickname. "Your proposal wasn't embarrassing. I thought it was romantic!"

He frowned. "_That_ is why it's humiliating," he muttered.

Everybody laughed.

The jade eyes sparkled again. She was engaged with Sasuke Uchiha!

XxXx

"Sasu-kun," Sakura said as she walked home from the hospital with him.

"It's either _Sasuke_ or _Sasuke-kun_," he corrected her, not liking the nickname. "I'll even let you call me _honey_ if you want to."

She frowned. "How is Sasu-kun worse than 'honey'?"

He shrugged.

"Well, anyway," she grinned, looking at the ring again. "Do you realize that everything we've pretended so far has come true? First, we pretended to be dating and then we became boyfriend and girlfriend! After, we pretended to be engaged and now," she raised her arm so that her ring could be seen. "I'm the future Mrs. Uchiha!"

He rolled his eyes. "Should we pretend that you're pregnant?" He smirked, receiving a cold glare from his fiancee. "Anyway, I need to drop the contract down at the Hokage's office," he said, leaving her when they got to her front porch.

When Sakura opened the door, she was greeted by not only her Aunt _and_ Grandmother with stern looks plastered on their faces, but her uncle too. All she could really say in her head was '_Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap_' as she vividly remembered the strip club incident.

"Sakura, we need to talk," her Aunt told her. She had a worried look on her face and the creases from her arched brows deepened.

"Uh, yeah?" Sakura gave a short reply, crossing her fingers behind her back.

"You have to break your engagement with the Uchiha." It was a simple command from her Grandmother.

"I'm sorry, honey, but I caught him at a strip club with a girl," her Uncle adjusted his glasses uncomfortably, moving his eyes around the room to see if anybody had realized that he was also there.

Sakura rolled her eyes, deciding that this conversation should be kept short. "It was a mission, he told me ahead of time that he would have to do that." She gave a small smile. "You don't have to worry about me." Before she took a step to head towards the stairs, her Grandmother stopped her.

"Sakura, we want you to live your life to the fullest. Don't you realize that if you marry him, you're just going to cut your life short?"

She turned to face the elderly lady. "What are you saying? That I'm going to be depressed because your friends tell you that living a life with a ninja isn't exciting, whatsoever. Or are you saying that Sasuke's going to kill me just because he's a ninja?"

The old woman crossed her arms, wrinkling the sleeves of her evergreen kimono. Sighing, she said, "To tell you the truth, I understand that by growing up here, you might end up with a ninja even though it's so..._urgh_, but still, marrying one isn't my problem right now. Our biggest concern at the moment is you marrying a _traitor_."

Sakura frowned. She hated (_despised_) that word, especially when using it to describe the man she loved so much. After all, no one could understand him as much as she and Naruto did; they didn't know Sasuke well enough to use that word against him.

"Don't you dare call him that!"

Shaking her head in disbelief, the old woman started to feel faint. "He's already affected you so much. Sakura. Look at yourself. If he had never entered the picture, you would _not_ be talking back at me. You would show so much respect to your family instead of humiliating us in front of everybody. Won't you at least try to make your parents proud of you by acting like you once were? By leaving the Uchiha?"

Sakura gawked at her. "_You_ don't understand me well enough. Do you think that I'm purposely trying to humiliate you in front of your friends? And how could you possibly think that right now, I am making my parents sad when all I'm doing is try to please them, live as a person that I'm not just so that _you_ would be happy."

The rosette closed her eyes, expecting what was about to happen. She allowed her Grandmother to slap her face so all she could feel afterwards was a stinging numb pain on her cheek.

"Don't you ever say that to me again."

Sakura looked down, avoiding her family's eyes on her. "I'm just saying....try to understand me before you judge any of my actions." She paused for a moment. "I love Sasuke because I grew up differently than you. I know you judge him for his past, but ninjas are my life, Grandma. _Sasuke_ is my life. I am surrounded by ninjas all the time and I_ understand_ them – I love them. They're just like everybody else in the world; just because they have a few extra talents, doesn't mean they're evil or someone you should cast out of your life. That's the same with Sasuke-kun."

Her Grandmother's face looked as if it got angrier. Strands of grey hair were falling out of place and the woman shook her head again. "How could this be?" She breathed out. "How could your parents fail to raise you to be an obedient girl?"

Suddenly, Sakura's mouth dropped open. "You can't say that about _my_ parents! You, showing up for the first time in, what, ten years? You should _not_ act like you know everything when really, you've only been here for a month!"

"Then why won't you ever listen? How many times have I told you not to raise your voice at me?!"

"Well, it's not my fault is it? You're the one who's pissing me off!" For a moment, Sakura forgot she was talking to her Grandma.

Her Grandmother raised her arm again, about to slap Sakura.

However, Sakura's instincts came and she quickly dodged the hand that was aimed for her cheek again. Instead, Sakura used her own arm to hold back her Grandmother's and her grip on the woman's fragile arm was tight so that she wouldn't move.

Rapidly, Sakura realized what she was doing and looked up at her speechless Grandmother.

"Saku...." her Grandmother tried to say, but it only came out as a muffled word. After all, the agility that her Granddaughter had shown were the same as....

a ninja's.

Hurriedly, Sakura's wide-eyed expression turned into a frown as she dropped hold of her Grandmother's arm and headed for her room upstairs as if she was fearing for her life.

After she slammed her bedroom door and locked it, Sakura dropped herself on the bed with tears in the corners of her eyes. She didn't mean to expose herself like that, but in reality, Sakura was somewhat glad. It wasn't like she was going to lie to everybody for the rest of her life.

But, "They're my family..." she breathed out. Combing her fingers through her hair, Sakura started to weep. She didn't understand how her Grandmother could be like that. She wondered what the old woman was going to do now, now that she knew Sakura's lifestyle. At first, she thought the whole problem was because she was with Sasuke, but now it has stretched to her own personality!

"Sakura, open the door!" Sakura could hear her Aunt calling from the other side, but didn't reply.

In fact, for the next few hours, everybody (but her Grandmother) was calling for her, but the girl never spoke up and never opened the door.

* * *

**Okay, so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE answer this question in your review (and please review too):**

**I have decided to write a chapter _just_ on the Grandmother's POV, and it'll be explaining why she hates ninjas so much and stuff so its just a chapter dedicated to her. However, I know that most readers tend to _not_ like chapters that are taken away from the main characters...so...**

**Should I post the Grandmother's POV chapter or should I just go ahead with the story as it is now?  
**


	19. Chapter 19

**I actually have a few things to say today:**

**First of all, I would like to thank _all_ of my reviewers. All. I mean, that has got to be _the_ most reviews I've ever received for one chapter. I am beyond grateful!**

**Secondly, OMG GUYS, ALMOST A THOUSAND REVIEWS!!**

**And thirdly, I appreciate all of your opinions on what you want and don't want to read and all of your suggestions. I sorta-in-a-way got an idea of what you guys want plus what I want for the ending, so I'm currently working on a few chapters, fixing a few things. Technically, this chapter wasn't supposed to come for a few weeks, but I managed to work a few things out. (Hint and, or warning: Lotsssa SasuSaku fluff)**

**Inspiration for this chapter: A few of the scenes came from a story I never actually wrote. It was a lame story anyway, so I decided to use some of the better parts for this chapter. Enjoy.**

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend  
**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx  
**

**

* * *

**

"Hey, do you know the way to Sasuke Uchiha's house?"

"Hey, do you know where Sasuke Uchiha lives?"

"Can you please tell me which house Sasuke Uchiha is at?"

"Thank you!"

Yuki had woken up that morning, running around the village to ask for directions. Now that she was standing in front of the Uchiha complex, she was a bit nervous, unsure of what to do. Raising her hand to knock the front door, she was startled when the Uchiha opened it.

"What?" He spat out.

"I...need your help."

XxXx

"Sakura, open the door! You haven't had anything to eat all day!" Her mother yelled from outside the room. She was worried about her daughter who hadn't left her room the entire day including the previous night.

When she and her husband had arrived at him, she was confused at the old lady's behavior until her sister-in-law finally explained what had happened.

Downstairs, she could hear her husband arguing right now, telling them the reason why they had set Sakura in a ninja school.

"I don't care! How could you do that? You ruined her life!" The elderly lady could be heard from the second level.

"She is _my_ daughter, not yours!"

Frowning, Sakura's mother decided to leave the tray of food next to the other trays by the door. "Sakura, please eat. I left the food out here." She then, headed downstairs so that she could help her husband.

XxXx

Sasuke followed her cousin to her house and waited as she opened the door. Instantly, all eyes were fixed onto the Uchiha.

"Yuki! Why did you bring _him_ here?" Her aunt asked.

The brunette answered, "Because I spent all last night trying to sleep on the uncomfortable sofa. I would like a mattress to sleep on, but Sakura won't open the door. _So_, I decided that he's the only one who could open it." She gave a grin, moving aside so that Sasuke could step forward.

He noticed that everybody was crowded around the living room, but only her Grandmother was alone, sitting on the dining room table. The elderly woman didn't even bother glancing – glaring, like she normally did – at him. Taking note of that, he headed for the stairs, but frowned when the family suddenly got up and followed him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Her Uncle asked.

The raven-haired boy didn't bother facing him when he answered. "Getting Sakura."

"Don't you think we've already tried that?" The man scoffed, but never got a reply.

Sasuke could see almost her entire family peaking behind the walls, studying his every move. Stepping over the trays of food – he realized she probably went a while without food – he slowly knocked onto the door. He received a silent reply. Knocking again, Sasuke could hear only the whispers coming from her family, discussing about his actions Finally, he let out a sigh, but he heard something coming from the rooms.

Slowly leaning in, Sasuke could hear small sniffs from behind the door. Frowning, he finally spoke up. "Sakura," he said softly, but loud enough for her to hear, "it's me." It was as simple as that and instantly (to her family's surprise), the door swung open and the rosette flung herself into his arms.

She didn't say anything, but dug her face into his chest, sobbing and sobbing until Sasuke could feel the tears soak through his shirt. Sakura's arms were over his shoulders, tightly wrapped around his neck and the only sounds that could be heard were her muffled cries.

A few moments had passed and yet Sakura didn't remove her face from his chest. Noticing that his clothes were getting wetter, Sasuke lowered himself so that he could put his arms under her legs and carry her bridal style. He took her back into her room, shutting the door with his foot before her family could follow.

Sakura's face was still buried in his chest and it seemed like she wasn't planning to lift it up, even to breathe.

Laying her on the bed, he sat next to her, resting his back against the headboard and adjusted himself comfortably. Sakura, however, had slid down so that she was laying on the bed and her face was buried into his stomach. She clung onto his shirt as if she was a little kid.

Letting out an exhale, Sasuke finally said, "I'm not so good at this, you know. Normally, it's you who's questioning the emotional person and making them feel better."

Sakura didn't answer and the two stayed there in perfect silence while breathing in synchronization. Finally, the usually bubbly girl lifted her face and muttered, "She didn't even try to understand."

He didn't know why Sakura was getting emotional over this stuff, but he figured it was because by the time he was fully aware of things around him, the people in his life were already gone. Sakura, however, has grown up with people surrounding her and has grown to love them so much. The only memory that Sasuke could relate to was just like the feeling he had with his own brother, having someone you care for so much turn against you suddenly is hurtful.

By the time he looked back at Sakura, she was red-eyed, but had stopped crying. However, she did sniff a lot – Sasuke extended his arm over to her desk and pulled out a tissue for her.

Her voice was a bit soft, but luckily, Sasuke heard her. "Hn," he replied. "So what made you tick?"

Sakura gave a small grin after he said that. Even though they had rushed into the engagement, barely going on the third date, the Uchiha already knew so much about her – even more than most people that she's known for longer. With a sigh, she answered slowly, "She said....my parents didn't raise me properly..."

"And?"

Sakura turned her head so that she couldn't look in his questioning eyes. Biting her lip, she replied, "She said ninjas were all dangerous and if I marry you, I'd...risk my life."

Sasuke sighed, pulling Sakura in closer to his body. "She's been saying that for the past month. What else?"

The rosette shook her head, messing her hair a bit more. "There's no more," she murmured. All of a sudden, she hid her face in his chest again while tears began to edge up in the corner of her emerald eyes.

"What?" Sasuke asked, unsure of what she had just said.

Again, Sakura gave another muffled answer, so Sasuke placed his hands on the sides of her face, lifting it back from his body. "Tell. Me."

Sakura frowned, wondering when Sasuke became so demanding. Narrowing her eyes, Sakura eventually said, "She.....called you a..."

"A what?"

"A...traitor." She was finally looking at Sasuke again before leaning her head onto a pillow next to his body.

Sasuke looked at her once before sliding down from sitting against the headboard and laid next to her; they were at eye level. He leaned in slowly and kissed her on her forehead. "Sakura," he breathed out. "You know that's who I – "

"_Used _to be," Sakura finished.

"– so there will always be people who still believe that no matter what I do."

She pouted her lips, trying to hide the tears that were slowly falling down her rouge cheeks. "Families suck," she said immaturely.

"Aa," he agreed.

There was a brief period of silence before someone spoke again.

"Hey...Sasuke-kun?"

The Uchiha rolled his eyes, looking back at Sakura again. "Aa?"

"You know they're my family and this is really upsetting for me," the kunoichi started to say, casually avoiding his gaze. "Well, I was just wondering if you will stay with me for the rest of the night?"

Sasuke slowly moved his neck to the side, noticing that her clock still said it was early noon. He sighed, wrapping his arm around her waist again. "Yeah," he simply replied.

Sakura bit her lip, rolling over so that she could face him and not the wall. "And..."

He raised an eyebrow to her 'and', questioning her wishes.

"I know that back when we were twelve, you especially hated me because of this, but I was wondering if I could be ...annoying again?"

At first, Sasuke didn't know what she meant by that, but after a few minutes of staring at her face, watching the glistening of her eyes and facial expressions, he gave a small smirk, finally understanding what she meant. He was not used to all this comforting. "Even back then, I never.....uh, pushed you away."

Her eyes squinted as she smiled, leaking out more tears. "Thanks," she softly wept before leaning her head onto his arm and bursting into tears again.

XxXx

"Where are you going?" It was mid-afternoon and Sasuke had shifted himself off the bed.

He turned to her (she was still laying on her bed, half smiling back at him). "Don't worry, I'll be back," he said. He watched her expression, tired as if she had barely slept, which he assumed she didn't do much of the previous night.

With that, Sasuke headed out the door, shutting it behind him and hurried down the steps when he was, again, caught in the middle of everybody's stares.

"How is she doing?" Her Mother was the first to speak. The woman looked half a mess as Sakura as her hair was a bit frizzy; she was terribly worried of her daughter.

"Good," Sasuke replied. "Is there any food I can bring up for her? The trays outside of her room look a little stale."

Both Sakura's Aunt and Mother brightened as they stood from their seat. They immediately got up and headed for the kitchen, avoiding her Grandmother's glare at them on the way.

Sasuke turned when he heard a chuckle from the side and he turned to see Sakura's Father smile at him.

"You really do care for her, don't you?" The middle-aged man said.

"Aa," Sasuke replied and turned to the side to avoid his face because of embarrassment. He waited until the two women came back with two plates of food.

"You should eat too, Sasuke," her Mother handed him the two plates.

Sasuke politely nodded, thanking her as he turned around and went back upstairs again. He entered Sakura's room again, noticing the girl's head pop up when she heard the sound of the door.

He smirked. "You hungry?" He asked, receiving a quick nod from her.

Sakura smiled brightly, getting up tiredly and approaching Sasuke. The couple ate in silence, but enjoyed each other's company.

"And there's only two days until the festival," Sakura breathed out after they finished. "Do you know if they've found anything yet?" She decided to change the subject.

Sasuke shook his head. "No. Apparently, the Hokage sent out a few spies, but they haven't reported back with any news."

The kunoichi suddenly stood, heading towards her closet and pulling out a large duffel bag that was hidden in the very back corner underneath a pile of clothes. Opening it, she quickly searched and pulled out another bag which revealed her old training clothes.

She glanced at him.

Sasuke smirked, turning his head to the side and placing his hands over his eyes while she changed.

When Sakura was done, she did a few stretches, finally comfortable in her own clothes rather than the tights and shirt she was wearing before. She quickly took off any accessories she had on and tossed them to the side.

"Hey," Sasuke called out after a moment of silence.

"Yeah?"

"Come train with me tomorrow. You need it anyway."

Sakura nodded in agreement. "Why not today?"

"Hn, obviously you're still very tired," he replied, staring back at her exhausted eyes – there were bags under them.

She gave a small smile, glad to know Sasuke was always looking out for her.

It was a few hours later when Sakura dropped right back on her bed. Sasuke was laying right next to her. It only took a moment, but when the Uchiha turned to the side, his fiancee laid there, sleeping peacefully.

He watched her sleeping face as she breathed lightly, brushing the few strands of coral coloured hair away from her face.

"I guess first impressions aren't everything."

The voice surprisingly startled him (he didn't even hear the door open) and Sasuke turned to the doorway, finding her cousin standing there.

"I grew up thinking ninjas were terrible, _but_ I guess you're not that bad, Sasuke." Yuki smiled afterward. The brunette angled her body a bit, about to turn around and leave the room, but stopped to tell him something else. "You can stay in her room tonight too...if you're not awkward about me sleeping on the mattress." She pointed to the spare that laid on the floor. "I won't mind."

Sasuke smirked. "Aa," he replied before Yuki left, shutting the door behind her.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review or give feedback. I've been rereading a few of my older stories and chapters and realized my grammar insanely sucks, so advice would be awesome :)**

**GOAL: 1000 REVIEWS ;D**

**See you guys in two weeks. Ish. Maybe. Depends if I manage to fix up the next chapter to the point where I actually like it. Right now, it's not going too well....wish me luck and hope that I don't get writer's block!**

**EDIT (PLEASE READ): Firstly, THANKS GUYS, WE MADE IT TO A THOUSAND! _HOWEVER, _I will NOT be updating this week due to a few problems over here (oh, and also because I don't have the next chapter ready...but even if I did, I wouldn't have posted it anyway since it would've been rushed due to the stuff thats been happening here). I AM TRULY, TRULY SORRY AND I HOPE YOU FORGIVE ME.**

**I will update next week! Until then, have a happy march break guys.  
**


	20. Chapter 20

**Hey guys! Thanks for waiting so patiently for this chapter and I'm deeply sorry for not updating last week, but some things got in the way, so I never had the time to finish rewriting this chapter the way I wanted it to be. However, we _did_ reach over 1000 reviews!! :) I'm sooo happy and grateful and it's all thanks to you wonderful readers out there!**

**Anyway, since this is the twentieth chapter, I shall renew my disclaimer: I don't own, never will. I'm just an innocent fan who enjoyed this week's manga chapter (did anyone else enjoy it? It was nice....)**

**Inspiration for the chapter: Ooh...There was something, but I don't quite remember..maybe it was for next chapter.**

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx

* * *

**

"Sakura," he whispered in her ear, sliding her head off his arm and getting up from her bed. He shook his bed head off and stretched his arms out, noticing in the corner of his eyes that Yuki had already left (sleeping with her in the room wasn't _that_ uncomfortable). The Uchiha rubbed his eyes before nudging the rosette again.

"Just five more minutes.." Sakura murmured, turning her head to the side and away from Sasuke.

He rolled his eyes, resting his back against the headboard. He patted her head, tangling his fingers into her soft hair. "Wake up," he commanded, though received no reply. He sighed. "Wake up and I'll take you shopping after training." If Sakura was anything like that Ino girl he'd often see on the streets with Shikamaru (which was almost very likely considering the two were close friends), she would respond to this.

Much expected, the soon-to-be Uchiha popped up and jumped off her bed.

Sasuke smirked – not only at her reaction, but her hair too; it was sticking out in all directions.

"You promise, Sasu-kun?" Sakura asked, taking a brush from the top of her drawer and going through the knots of her hair.

"Aa," Sasuke muttered. "I'm going to leave now and pick you up later." He allowed her to peck him on the cheek before climbing out the window. After all, what would her parents think if he came down the stairs after locking himself in her room just the day before.

Alone, Sakura slowly got dressed – in her training uniform – and wrapped the weapon holster around her thigh. She looked at herself in the vanity, assuring herself that being herself would be okay – or at least with the majority of her family, excluding maybe one or two relatives.

Slowing her steps down the stairs, Sakura knew she would be the center of attention within a few minutes. She was right; the moment Sakura entered the dining room where her mom was making breakfast, all eyes were drawn to her. She licked her lips, staying quiet.

"Morning," her father was the first to speak. He shifted his eyes back to the paper he was reading. "Are you working today?"

Sakura paused before answering as she notice a glance coming from her grandmother. However, it wasn't the usual icy stare; she looked almost frightened by the sight of Sakura.

Finally, she shook her head. "I'm meeting my team," she said and her pupils moved from left to right and back again as she watched her relative's position shift while she was speaking, "at the training grounds first and then I'm going to stop by Shishou's office." Sakura couldn't help but turn her attention back at her grandmother – she hadn't said a word that morning.

Her dad nodded and by then, breakfast had started.

"_So_...do you have a mission soon or anything?"Yuki curiously asked, playing with her half-eaten food, "like, anything exciting?" It was clear that Yuki was more interested now that someone accessible was there to answer her questions.

Sakura was quiet – too many thoughts in her head at once – and she waited until she finished chewing before she muttered a reply, "Uh, no. It's just training today. I don't think there will be many because of the festival tomorrow."

"Oh, right!" The girl finally quieted, only to come up with another question, "so what kind of attacks can you do?"

Sakura gave a half smile, knowing that Yuki wanted to follow Sakura to the training grounds and gaze at her unknown abilities, but respected her parents' wishes. "Uh...Lots of stuff, I guess..." her voice drifted off as she noticed her cousin's curiousness grow. "But they're nothing too fancy. All the..._cool_ moves were the ones you saw Naruto and Sasuke-kun do."

After breakfast, Sakura hurriedly cleaned the table, walking passed her grandmother (it felt like time was going by slowly) and headed out the front door.

She met up with Sasuke on the way – it was much quicker now that she was allowed to run her own speed. Neither spoke about her family, but it didn't stop her from thinking about the elderly woman's reaction that morning. It was a strange face that her Grandmother gave.

Finally, Sakura decided to speak. "My grandma," she began.

They were at the edge of the training fields, close enough to see the tree stumps in the distance.

"Hn?" Sasuke mumbled, slowing his pace, but still keeping his eyes straight ahead.

"I think...she doesn't really _hate_ ninjas, she's more...scared of them. She looked terrified when I came down the stairs earlier today," Sakura explained carefully, glancing at the corner of her eyes at the fast-moving scenery.

"There are some people who develop phobias due to bad experiences, do you know of any?"

Sakura shook her head mutely. Her jade eyes finally looked ahead at the blond who stood just over the horizon, waving his arms to them.

"Sakura!" It didn't hit Naruto that she was wearing her normal clothes until Kakashi had asked her about it.

"Oh, they found out," Sakura replied sheepishly, avoiding the worried look her sensei gave.

Naruto turned to face the Uchiha, reading the man's expression and decided to change the topic. "Let's train!"

XxXx

It was still early noon, but the grassy fields were replaced with dirt, blood as well as numerous amounts of weapons.

"You all know what to do tomorrow, right?" Kakashi reminded, shifting his position so that he was ready to leave.

The three nodded, setting the silver haired man off. They laid on the muddy fields, staring at the serene skies.

"Hey, Sasuke-kun.. When are you planning to take me shopping?" Sakura asked, turning her head to the side to face him. She could feel the moist, cool dirt against her skin.

"Yeah, Sasuke-_kun_," Naruto mocked. "You told me you'd buy me lots and lots of ramen."

The silent man closed his eyes, hoping it would zone out his teammates' voices; it didn't really help and he could still hear Naruto's constant chatter.

"We should go out for ramen.." Naruto muttered. "Do you want to, Sakura? Sasuke will pay." He grinned, squinting his blue eyes.

Sakura thought for a moment, ignoring Sasuke's growl. "Yeah, sure. We haven't done that in a while. Besides, we should really get out of the habit of laying in the dirt after training," Sakura muttered, wiping off some of the stains on her shirt. But no one moved. They enjoyed the peacefulness too much to budge.

Suddenly, Sasuke felt something on his hand – another hand. He opened his eyes to see a smile from Sakura.

"Hey," Naruto chuckled, " I feel a little left out!"

XxXx

"I promise I'll get you something tomorrow, Sakura!" Sasuke breathed out, tired and sore. He cracked his neck and knuckles as the couple walked down the streets.

"But it's still early _now_!"

"I have to go meet a few people. Tomorrow," Sasuke explained.

The kunoichi gave a grin. "Wait...what if you give it to me tomorrow – whatever it may be – but it gets ruined during the festival?! That means_ you're_ going to have to get me another one."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, smirking. "Whatever."

When they got to the front of her house, Sasuke sighed. "I take it I'm not going to be invited today?"

Sakura flinched, realizing that she should take it a bit easier with her family. "Yeah, I guess. I'll see you later tonight." She entered the house, somewhat familiar with the awkward stares; they were a little more surprised this time though, considering they weren't used to the dirt and mud she'd brought with her.

"I'm going to go upstairs – shower," was her excuse. She had entered her room first to get new and fresh clothes and realized Yuki was there, fixing her hair in her reflection.

"Oh, hi!" She quickly waved to Sakura, noticing the girl's image on the vanity, However, she kept her body still to keep her appearance well. "Did you know that my parents and yours are going out for the night?"

"Uh, hey and no," Sakura muttered quietly, "I just wanted to say, thanks. You know, for bringing Sasuke here the other day."

"No problem," the girl replied, smiling at herself and turning around. She leapt from her seat, about to prance out of the room when Sakura made a move, stopping her. "Anything wrong?" Yuki asked.

"I-uh," Sakura stuttered, lost in thoughts. She licked her dry lips and thought for a moment before she continued. "Do you think...you could convince Grandma to, you know, explain to us – or to you, without her knowing I'm there – like, well," Sakura stopped, trying to come up with a simpler explanation.

"_Like_?" Yuki stretched the word.

"I mean, see if you could get her to tell us why she disapproves of being a ninja so much? She's never really told us why she hates them so much."

Her cousin nodded, finally understanding what she meant. "Sure, I'll see what I can do, but only if you take me to the training fields and show me what you can do before I leave Konoha."

"Uh, yeah, yeah. Thanks, you've been a real help!"

XxXx

"_Grand-ma_," Yuki stretched each syllable when she called for the older woman. She was sitting on her mattress when she noticed her grandmother walk by quietly. In the corner of Yuki's eyes, she tried to find any clues as to where Sakura was hiding – she was truly an amazing ninja since she hid so stealthily.

"Hmm?" the woman replied, turning her head around.

Yuki could tell her grandmother was studying Sakura's room, wondering if her cousin was in it. She also noticed that her grandmother's lips pressing together – a sign that she started to feel relaxed – before she took steady steps. "Tell me about Grandpa," Yuki smiled, hoping her question wasn't easy to read. "He died before I was born, so I want to know more about him. I mean, I've learned so much about Auntie and Uncle over here, I might as well learn about Grandpa too!"

"Uh," her grandmother made a sound, surprised by the remark. Her eyes moved up for a moment, probably wondering where to start. Suddenly, she turned around, once again scanning the area for anybody listening in.

"Is something wrong?" Yuki tilted her head to the side.

"I – where is your cousin?" the old woman stammered. Instead of walking towards her granddaughter, she walked towards Sakura's closet. Opening it, she found nothing but a large pile of clothes and multiple piles of medical books.

The brunette blinked a few times before answering. "I think she got called down to the Hokage's office or something...some ninja duty," she lied. "Is there something you don't want Sakura to hear?" She curiously asked.

Again, the response made the woman nervous as she closed the closet doors. "Of course not! I was just wondering...where she was. I haven't seen her all day." She made her way through the room, sitting on a chair nearby Yuki. "So what do you want to know?" Her voice was slow, eyeing Yuki carefully as if she was suspicious.

XxXx

"Don't fall, don't fall, don't fall," Sakura mutely told herself. She had adjusted herself so that her chakra was all over her backside; she was laying on the ceiling of her closet. Of course, Sakura had done many spy missions, but spying on her own grandmother made her feel uneasy. She listened closely, taking in every detail that her grandmother was giving to Yuki. They were just small stories of how they met or what married life was like.

"So wait, it was after you moved back home that you met grandpa?" Sakura heard Yuki ask followed by her grandmother's 'yes'. "Where were you before?"

There was a pause and Sakura shifted her head slightly to peak through the gap of the closet doors, watching her grandmother's complex face.

"I lived here," the old woman replied slowly. "My parents decided to move from where you live now to Konoha, hoping for better business. It was just a developing village at the time, but it was still one of the largest."

Suddenly, the phone rang. Sakura almost jumped off the position she was in, but luckily, she held her spot. Instead, Yuki had grabbed it (no one was home but the three).

"Hello?....Sasuke?" She exclaimed. "No...Sakura's not here, she went out."

Sakura bit her bottom lip, wishing Sasuke would hang up. After all, he had never called her before, always at the front door. Of all the times he chose to use a telephone, he chose _that_ moment.

"I- I- I don't know where she is!" Yuki told him over the phone, but when she looked over to her grandmother, she panicked.

"I thought you said she was with the Hokage.. _unless_ she isn't," her grandmother said sternly. "_Yuki_, where is Sakura?"

"Well, yeah, she was with the Hokage," Yuki explained but the phone was still on, so the Uchiha could hear her, "but by now, she's probably somewhere else. You know how speedy those ninja are, grandma. Anyway, good luck with your search, Sasuke." She quickly hung up on the man, turning back to her grandmother and blinking innocently. "_So_, where were we?"

XxXx

It had been over three hours since Sasuke called Sakura's house when the door to the Hokage's office suddenly burst open and the man came running

The blond woman in charge looked up sternly. "Uchiha, what the hell do you want?"

"Sakura's missing."

* * *

**Didn't quite have the time to go over this chapter much -- I just skimmed through it, so I hope there's not too many errors. **

**I'm trying to make the grandmother less....."bitchy" or so many of you said she was, but I guess it's pretty hard to unbitch a person....**

**Anyway did you guys enjoy your March Break, by the way? I sure did....lots of relaxing time....._sigh_ and it's all gonna be over soon. I declare tomorrow homework day D:**

**So please review and I will share some Naruto shaped cookies :)  
**


	21. Chapter 21

**Hey guys, how's your April going? It's so depressingly rainy over here.**

**Anyway, thanks so much for reviewing and favoriting last chapter. I really, really, oh-so really appreciate it! Lol, a lot of you seemed to think Sasuke over-reacted, but there was a reason. It'll be stated somewhere at the end.  
**

**Inspiration for this chapter: Cleaning out my closet**

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx

* * *

**

"You remember Tsubaki, dear. She was one of my closest friends at the time," Sakura's grandmother explained. She had already finished the story of how she met her husband. However, it didn't have the information Sakura and Yuki needed, so the brunette kept going.

"Oh right, she was the one who told us that Sakura was engaged!" Yuki nodded her head, keeping herself from yawning at the old stories. Her eyes wandered around the room, hoping that when this was finished, Sakura better show her everything a ninja could do and possibly teach her a few tricks too.

"Uh, yes, that. Well, it was a joyous day to be reunited with her until _that_ came up," her grandmother muttered, "I haven't seen her in years because of that husband of hers."

"Why? Is he a bad man?" Yuki breathed out.

Frowning, the wrinkles around the woman's eyes tightened. "Of course! He was cruel and abusive towards Tsubaki," she muttered, crossing her arms at the memory, "he once threatened my friends and I with a kunai if we got too close to her. Tch, that man was just scared we'd steal his servant-of-a-wife away."

"Oh, I see," Yuki said.

XxXx

"Ask her more about it! You might be able to find something!" Sakura mouthed, forcefully keeping all sounds from escaping her lips. Her neck was starting to ache since she had trained all day and the current position was rather tight. Plus, there was a mountain of textbooks – one corner of the thick book was jabbed into her side.

Sakura adjusted her eyes again, watching the two talk through the opening of her closet; thankfully, when her grandmother opened it, she didn't close it all the way.

"Oh and then there was – "

Sakura listened intently as her grandmother listed a few more of her friends, but it didn't strike her interest until she heard something.

"I wonder if he died after that..." she asked herself out loud. The woman was lost in her thoughts as she kept quiet for the next few moments. It was clear that it had been a while since she spoke of these stories to anybody and being reminded prevented her from worrying too much about what was happening in the present.

Sakura bit her lower lip, moving her head a little closer to the closet doors to listen in to what the elderly woman was saying through her lulled voice.

"After what?" Yuki asked.

"Yes!" Sakura accidentally whispered, "great question! That's just want I wanted!" When she realized how loud she was being, Sakura immediately covered her mouth with one hand, peering over to the side and hoped no one had heard her.

Unfortunately, it was right after when her grandmother turned around. "Did you hear that?" she asked. "I thought I – "

The phone rang again.

"Uh, grandma, can you pick that up?" Yuki hurriedly asked as she jumped up from her seat, "I have to use the bathroom."

Sakura smiled, thanking Yuki inwardly for the excuse; her cousin was a gifted liar. However, when she looked over again, she realized that with all the hopping, Yuki probably really did needed to use the washroom.

"Hello?"

Sakura's eyes shifted to the phone.

"No, Sakura hasn't come home yet. Who is this? The Hokage?"

Her brows furrowed, cursing at Sasuke. He was never a worrier, why did he have to get Tsunade involved now?

"But.. My granddaughter said she was with you..." Her grandmother fidgeted uncomfortably onto the phone wires. "Are you sure you can't find her? She's always out, so I wouldn't be surprised if she – she's not at the hospital either? Well maybe the Uchiha boy should find her aga – she's not at any of her friends....even _they're_ looking?"

"Damn, damn, damn," Sakura muttered. She was torn between staying in the closet and having a change at finding out more things from her grandmother. But if she suddenly popped out, her grandmother would know she's been listening and be furious (more than she is now) or so shocked, she might get a heart attack.

"Well," her grandmother spoke slowly, "Sakura's a big girl now. If Sasuke can't find her now, what is he going to do when she becomes his wife?" She placed her hands on her hips and her mouth formed a straight line. "_Excuse me_?! Look lady, I don't care who you are, don't you have _any_ respect for your elders?"

Obviously, Sakura knew Tsunade never had any respect towards anybody, so her chest started to beat rapidly. She prayed for her grandmother's conversation with her teacher to be over soon. Sakura waited for her grandmother to speak up again, wondering who would win in the argument: her horrendous grandmother or her fearful teacher.

"I care for my granddaughters, so you do _not_ have the rights to...don't you dare use foul language at me!" With that, the elderly woman hung up on the Hokage. Turning around, her fingers tightened around the sleeves of her kimono.

Afterwards, Yuki came in. "Uh, I heard you yelling, so I waited until you finished your conversation. Are you okay?"

Suddenly, the woman stormed out of the room. "Come, we're going to find your cousin. These ninja can't do anything right."

Yuki tiredly made a face. "What? They said she was missing? Oh my – Grandma, don't worry. Sakura's a ninja, I'm sure she's fin – "

"How would you know? Yuki, you don't know how many twisted people there are out there! _I_ do. I've lived through deaths and murders," the woman paused, panting frm her outrage. "Tsubaki was forced to marry one, my first boyfriend's family was killed by my own best friend _just_ because they were in the way during one of her missions. I watched as my classmates got slaughtered and tortured one by one before anybody came to stop them! My father – your great- grandfather – was put at the bottom of the hospital's list because they wanted to do a check up on the people coming back from their missions; he died waiting for a doctor to come! Yuki, you don't know how many of them are like that. Why do you think I disliked the Uchiha so much? His family was messed up! No one wants to see their granddaughter go through anything they went through..come, we're going to find her and make sure she stays put."

"Grandma! I know you're worried, but it's dark out!"

"Hmph, I'll go myself then." She didn't take the time to convince Yuki. Instead, she stomped out of the room before her granddaughter could say anything.

XxXx

Sakura jumped down, opening the closet to find a just-as-shocked Yuki. "I..." Sakura breathed out, "I should go stop her." Quickly, the kunoichi ran downstairs, calling for her grandmother who had just reached the front door.

By the sounds of her voice, the panicked woman turned around, studying the person who was running down the stairs and almost immediately, her brows fell, furrowing as she frowned. Fuming, she glared at Sakura and breathed heavily through her nostrils. She watched Sakura look straight back at her apologetically. "This entire time...This _entire_ time you were up there weren't you?"

"I- I'm sorry, but I just wanted to – " Sakura was cut off.

Her grandmother turned around, marching back up the stairs.

"Grandma!" Sakura called, "wait, why don't you want to talk to me? I'm not like them, I'm not! You shouldn't be afraid of me!"

Suddenly, the elegantly dressed woman froze and turned her head so that Sakura was in her view. "I'm _not_ afraid of you," she said, almost whispering.

"But you're afraid of ninjas, aren't you?"

The rouge lips opened slightly, but her grandmother never said a word. Instead, she headed to her room and closed the door.

Sakura stood there, staring at the ground until she heard Yuki come down the stairs. "Hey, the others are worried, so I'm ...I'm just going to tell them I'm okay. I'll be back," Sakura said dreadfully.

XxXx

"Sakura!" Naruto callout the moment he saw the figure run towards them. He, followed by the rest of the group, ran up to her, all full of relief. "Where have you been?" He looked at her with worried eyes.

"Sorry! But I was only gone for a few hours!" She replied.

"But you promised to meet me at the flower shop!" Ino pointed out, frowning, "when you didn't show up, I thought something had happened."

"Oh, heh, that was today?" Sakura asked and silently apologized to the blond.

"You had a surgery scheduled today too," Shizune said. "We managed to get someone to fill in for you."

Sakura looked surprised. "I thought I got the day off today."

Shizune shook her head. "No..you get the day off _tomorrow_ – for the festival."

"What?"

"Speaking of the festival," Kakashi had cut in, "with all this commotion about spies and such, you shouldn't blame us or your poor boyfriend here for overreacting."

"Yeah, Sakura! Teme almost cried when he couldn't find you."

Sakura gasped – almost too excitedly – and her mouth curved into a smile. "You almost cried..._for me_?"

"No. Dobe made that up," Sasuke sneered. By then, he was already in front of the group, grasping tightly onto Sakura's hand. "I admit I was worried, but I didn't cry _nor_ was I about to."

Sakura pouted her lips. "So Sasuke didn't cry for me? Naruto, tell me the truth, did he cry or not?"

The blond shrugged. "Probably. He _was_ desperately worried and likely hid his tears from everybody."

The Uchiha growled. "I was not desperately worried. _Just_ worried."

Sakura made a face. "_Not_ desperately? Sasuke, _you_ were the one who got everybody involved and formed a search party!"

"Hn, but I didn't cry."

* * *

**I promise next chapter will have more Sasuke and Sakura time.**

**And if you guys didn't catch it, Sasuke overreacted cause well, with the whole spies-thing going on..and possible invasion and the fact that she's always on time, but didn't even show up at the hospital cause of her mistaken schedule stuff.... Yeah. Otherwise, I don't think he'd care much if Sakura was gone for a few hours.**

**Please review and I'll see you guys again!**


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: Okay, some unfortunate news.. This is the last chapter I have written so far and I have absolutely no time to continue writing what with extracurricular activities, schools and final assessments and all this family stuff. Its actually surprising that I had time to go onto my computer today. I will try every time I have, but I'm unsure when I will be able to update again. D:**

**I'M SORRY!**

**Inspiration for this chapter: a part of this chapter...I was inspired by one of the Spongebob eps..the one where Spongebob tells jokes at the Krusty Krab... :)**

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx**

**XxXx

* * *

**

She was laying in bed, forcing herself to keep her eyes shut. Nevertheless, the woman never did fall asleep. She was too busy thinking about the festival and her family. Of course, she couldn't tell them about her small mission tomorrow; she didn't want them to panic, but she didn't want them to be too relax and go out too far.

Sakura's eyes slowly opened once again as she stared out of her curtainless windows at the bright stars. Each of them twinkled brightly, reminding her to glance back at the ring on her finger.

She played with the ring around her finger a lot, but remained quiet for Yuki to sleep.

Giving a silent sigh, the girl sat up and headed for the door – if she wasn't going to sleep, she might as well use her night (despite probably needing it for the next morning). Quietly leaving her house, Sakura started running into the distance. The small breeze blew through her hair. Of course, her steps slowed down when she noticed a few girls whisper and point directly at her.

"I heard she's going to be marrying Sasuke Uchiha," one said.

Sakura couldn't help but gleam proudly and her face turned a little red.

"Really? Her? You've got to be kidding."

Angrily, Sakura balled her hands. She was about to walk over to the girls and prove to them that she was a worthy Uchiha.

"I wonder how many kids they're going to have...I bet their house will be filled with little Uchiha kids running around soon..." This comment struck Sakura's attention. "...Five..Six...who knows how many kids they're going to have."

She decided to continue walking slowly and unsure of where she was heading. Of course, she knew that by marrying Sasuke, people would expect them to have an heir as soon as possible, but she'd always figured 'as soon as possible' meant as soon as _she_ was ready and not the clan leaders or Hokage or anybody else for that matter. However, now that she was thinking about it, her worried face grew more and more frustrated.

Barely eighteen yet, she knew that most people in the village tend to have children in their early _twenties_, just because of their lifestyles. And shouldn't Sasuke have some say in this? Whether the clan leaders and elders expect it or not, Sasuke should at least have some power, especially when his future wife doesn't wa –

Sakura interrupted her own thoughts and suddenly yelled, "I'm only SEVENTEEN!" and caught passerby's attention.

XxXx

She arrived at a local bar, hoping to find some old friends and relax – they were mostly found there, even in the dead of the night. She didn't drink as much as people thought – even if she is the Hokage's student. It was just one of those rare moments when she'll have a glass or two.

When she entered, the jade eyes shifted to the side and noticed the man whose hair was sticking up on the back of his head; it was Sasuke's head.

"Sasuke-kun?" She murmured and luckily, he heard her since he turned around.

"Hn," he muttered.

"Can't sleep either?" She guessed, somewhat smiling – the thought of kids were still locked tightly in her mind – as she sat on the stool next to him. She could hear the sounds of glass clanking against each other and the drinks being poured.

"I don't normally sleep til later in the night," Sasuke said, breathing out of his nose.

Sakura furrowed her brows in wonder of how much sleep the Uchiha really gets considering he wakes up so early and yet apparently he doesn't sleep well at night either. "Where's Naruto? Oh wait, don't answer that. Knowing him, he's probably asleep," she mused to herself.

Sasuke gave a small smirk before replying. "He's actually at the Hyuuga's – he made the shy one faint."

"Why?"

"I don't know..Something about asking her on a date or something."

Her eyes widened at the statement and were soon filled with glitter. "Really?!" Sakura clapped her hands together, grinning widely. "This is probably _the_ best thing I've heard all week!" The apple-green eyes glistened brightly.

The Uchiha looked at her questioningly for a moment before frowning. "Sakura," be started, catching her attention. "I proposed to you just three _days_ ago."

Sakura blinked silently.

"I gave you a lame speech. There were cheesy starlights and a freaking huge poster that said 'Marry Me' _and_ a diamond ruby ring that could make girls claw each others' face off just to touch it."

There was a mute pause before the girl answered. "Uh, so? I'm talking about _Naruto_ confessing his undying love to the girl who's loved him her entire life! Doesn't it just make your day?"

XxXx

For the next while, the two were silent, unsure of what to talk about. Sasuke stood still for the majority of the time and Sakura, curiously staring at him, ran her fingers around the rim of her glass (of water, she wanted to be sober for the festival).

Eventually, the two got up from their seat, wandering the streets. Sakura wasn't sure where they were heading, but she took the time to glance at the decorations that had already been hung up.

"So what do you normally do during this time?" Sakura finally broke the dead air.

Sasuke's attention turned to her and gave an exhale before he replied. "I don't know...walk around, think about stuff."

She nodded, turning her face around to realize they were just outside the Uchiha complex.

"Come in," Sasuke invited. "It's cold out here anyway."

"Uh, okay," Sakura muttered, entering the main gates. "So are you planning to get that moat and dragon around your home?" She mused, glancing at his face; he looked away with a small blush on his cheeks. "I heard that the whole drink ordeal was fake – from Naruto," she explained afterwards.

"It was his idea, after all," Sasuke added. "He's very proud of it."

Sakura giggled, looking up from the front steps to see the beautiful home she never got to look at the first time she was there. She had never realized there were so many photos hanging on the walls – mostly of Sasuke's parents.

"Aw," Sakura cooed. "You look _so_ adorable, Sasuke-kun!" She picked up one of the picture frames on the side desk.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, hiding his embarrassment again. "I left everything the way my Mother had it."

Sakura walked over to the one frame – the only picture – that included Itachi. Actually, the entire family was in the picture. She turned around to question Sasuke.

"It was..family tradition to go to that park every year," he muttered, running his fingers over the glass which protected the photo. "But other relatives and friends would also come along, so never actually got to spend our time together as a family." Sasuke's voice grew quiet. "That was our last year at the park together, but it was the first time we spent it together too."

The rosette next to him gazed at the photo a while longer, studying the happy expression that both brothers displayed. "I see."

Sasuke turned around, sitting on the couch – Sakura followed, sitting next to him.

"So when you say you walk around at night, thinking about..._stuff_, what exactly do you think about?" Sakura curiously asked as she rested her head onto Sasuke's shoulders. She felt them shrug.

"Just things that are happening," he merely replied.

Preventing herself from yawning, Sakura wanted to deny the fact that she was tired. "Does any of it include me?" She innocently wondered out loud.

Sasuke smirked, shrugging again. "Not really," he said, watching Sakura's face grow red and her brows lower. He adjusted his position so that they were both laying down on the couch – they both knew they were growing sleepy.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"Aa?"

"Lets talk children," Sakura said curtly. "How many and when?"

The question caused the Uchiha to stumble on his words. He staggered his words for a few moments, lost in deep thought.

"Well?" Sakura was growing impatient and her thoughts only led back to those girls earlier on the streets.

"I don't know how many," he finally answered, "and whenever you want."

The rosette blinked a few times before replying, "But what about the elders? And the clan leaders and contract? Won't they be expecting us to marry soon and have an Uchiha heir?"

Sasuke's eyebrows rose. "Have you been worrying about that?" He exhaled through his nostrils and held onto Sakura's hands. "As long as we get married and let them know that their will be an heir sometime in the future, we can pick the dates whenever we want," he explained.

"Oh."

"You sound disappointed," Sasuke added. "Why?"

Sakura didn't answer, but after the long pause, she finally said, "I already picked out the names of our kids."

XxXx

"Morning," the future wife growled the moment she had sensed movement coming from the man on the couch. She was putting on her shoes at the front.

"Hn," he greeted back, getting up and stretching his arms – the previous night had been a _long_ one.

"What? You're still angry about it?" Sakura spat out. She opened the door and noticed Sasuke had done the same, probably planning on taking her home.

Sasuke didn't reply, only turning his head to the side to avoid her stare. He realized Sakura was walking rather quickly, but he only sped up too. "You're just as mad," he replied.

"But that's only because you're mad," Sakura replied again. She crossed her arms, looking up to see her house over the horizon.

"And why do you think I am?"

Sakura sighed. "Well, I'm _sorry_," she said sarcastically. "I didn't know you hated the name so much. I mean, what's the problem anyway?"

Sasuke gawked at her. "Naruto. _Naruto_! You wanted to name our son after Naruto! Do you know how absolutely insane and stupid that is?"

"It's my son too and it's not like that name is a curse! He'll have you and me, so he'll be smart and strong."

"No. If dobe hears that we're naming out son after him, he'll _never_ leave. He'll spread his idiocy!"

Sakura sighed through frustration. "Sasuke, I think _you're_ the one who's stupid. It's not even a disease! Fine, if you want a smart boy, lets name him Shikamaru! "

Her soon-to-be husband gawked at her. "What is with you and naming after other people? Why can't we come up with our own names?"

"Because we love everybody and naming our baby after them is just a sign of our love. Plus, wouldn't it be great to know that our child will grow up possibly like them? Oh, how about Neji? He's smart and strong and – "

"I think I'd rather name him Naruto," Sasuke snapped, "and what do we do if it's a girl? If our child grows up to be like anybody we name it after, I think that it should definitely _not_ be that blond friend of yours."

"What? You mean Ino?" Sakura yelled. "What's wrong with Ino?"

"I've already got you. Another shopping-crazed girl in the house will just make us live on the streets! I don't have that much money, you know. You've already spent most of it."

"Why you– "

The front door had opened.

Sakura looked up and smile angelically. "Hi, Daddy."

Sasuke stiffened. "Mr. Haruno."

The older man looked at the two, clenching his teeth and fists together. "Sakura. Inside. _Now_."

Sakura waved off the Uchiha, muttering a 'see you later'. She stayed in the background though, listening into what her dad was going to say.

"You," the man said, "She better _not_ be pregnant." After, he slammed the door in front of the Uchiha.

* * *

**I'll see you guys again whenever I can! Until then, please review and also, thanks for reviewing last chapter! :) I REALLLLY appreciate all of your comments.**

**OOH, I ACTUALLY HAVE QUESTIONS FOR YOU GUYS: FIRST, do you like action scenes? SECOND, invading-the-village-conflicts...yes or no? Cause I'm kinda torn between making this whole spying-on-Konoha a big deal or not...  
**


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N:** For not updating for almost 9 months, I apologize. I blame writer's block and by the time I got out of the writer's block, I blame homework. Seriously. I mean it. And I'll try to update this again as soon as I can (don't worry, you won't have to wait another year)

And to all those who continuously reviewed and PMed me, THANK YOU so much, because it's because of all those reviews that encouraged me to keep writing.

I'd also like to say that when I originally began this story, I had this whole ending planned out. However, writing the whole village-being-attacked thing was a lot harder than I thought it would be, especially when it's a romantic comedy, so surely you're all expecting comedy in it. So I attempted some seriousness and humour in this chapter, but I'm not entirely sure if it worked. But please give me your honest opinion and feedback, it'll really help!

**Inspiration for this chapter**: For Christmas, I wanted Superman boxers...or shorts (I doubt that if there were boxers, they would be for women)you know, one with a superman crest on the butt to show how super-fantastic it is. Unfortunately, no one could find a pair like the one I wanted. Also, I felt like eating cotton candy.... But I didn't get any either.

**Oh! I wanted to write out some points, in case any of you forgot what's happening so far, cause I know some people actually have to go back and reread everything. Well, I summed it up for you - feel free to skip this entire huge section if you want. (I tried to get it in order the best I could, from what I remembered, but it probably isn't):**

1. Sakura's relatives: her aunt, uncle, cousin (Yuki) and grandmother came to Konoha for a visit. They had it planned for a few weeks. Of course, they all hate ninjas, especially her grandmother.

2. They are informed that a little over a month from then, there was going to be a festival held in Konoha where all the kages meet to celebrate.

3. Sasuke is portrayed as Sakura's boyfriend around her family so it would give her an excuse as to why she's constantly exposed to ninja-type things seeing as her parents and her are pretending that Sakura isn't a ninja at all and is a regular civillian.

4. A spy was captured from the Mist Village and as they were interrogating him, they decided that all teams should be prepared in case the Mizukage was secretly planning an attack during the festival. Tsunade begins to take everything cautiously and makes sure people can only enter and leave the village with permission.

5. Because of that, Sakura's family is forced to stay in the village several weeks longer

6. Sakura becomes Sasuke's fake fiance to cover for him at a clan meeting, so he wouldn't have to be arranged to be with anyone else (considering he's the last Uchiha and all). She meets someone there who happens to be an old friend of her grandmother's. Later, that woman reveals that fact to her own grandmother who is enraged that Sakura would be engaged with Sasuke.

7. Oh, did I mention that Sakura and Sasuke confess their feelings and become a real couple? Well, a while after they do, Sasuke learns that Sakura is actually sent out, every once in a while, on a seduction mission, mainly because all kunoichi who aren't from prestigious clans are required to do so. After talking to several people, Sasuke learns that she wouldn't be sent out on them anymore if she was a part of a clan: he proposes to her, she says yes.

8. Sakura gets into an argument with her grandmother who, midway through, realizes that Sakura's a ninja. The two don't talk to each other for a while. Sakura soon gets an idea, convincing her cousin to talk to their grandmother and fish out answers as to why the woman disapproves of ninjas so much.

9. While hiding in her closet, Sakura finds out that basically her grandma's entire youth was surrounded by death, caused by ninjas, which has made her paranoid and frightful of ninjas. It turns out that her grandma was just extremely cautious of their safety.

10. Oh, and Tsunade has assigned shifts for everyone during the festival so they could keep eye for anything and anybody suspicious. Thats it. This chapter is the day of the festival. Enjoy!

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

* * *

She reminded herself of her cousin the more she gazed at her reflection. The girl turned from side to side, eyeing for any imperfections. Her fingers ran through her lengthy hair, making sure that it would cover the headset that attached to her ear.

Sakura gave herself a smile, hearing footsteps climbing up her stairwell. "Morning, Sasuke-kun!" She said, but refrained herself from saying anymore when she realized it was just Yuki. "Oh, sorry. I thought you were Sasuke." After a pause, she added, "Anyway, thanks for last night."

"You're welcome," her cousin replied. "Has grandma talked to you about it yet, though? I mean, she's pretty pissed at me for being in the whole act, but she did tell me to pass the salt this morning at breakfast."

Sakura shrugged. "No, she hasn't. I grabbed some toast on my way out this morning; I had to meet with my teacher to go over some things, so I really haven't seen her."

The girl standing across from her had her chestnut hair tied into a neat bun, which wiggled as she glanced at Sakura. "You know I have an extra kimono...if you want. I'm sure it fits you."

Sakura furrowed her brows. "Why? What's wrong with mine?" She gave a twirl in the red gown with flower prints – the same one she wore when she met the other clan leaders with Sasuke.

"Your _Superman_ underwear is clearly shown through that huge hole at your ass," a deeper voice stated from the bedroom door. Obviously it was the infamous Uchiha.

"_What_?!" Sakura's cheeks tinted pink as she turned herself around again and studied that area from her mirror. "Damn it," she muttered.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Luckily, I brought you this," he held his hand up, "it's the present I promised you. So hurry up and put it on. You have two hours with your family before the other villages come and you have to work."

Sakura's eyes sparkled. "Wow..the kimono..it's beautiful! Thank you!" She ran over to the Uchiha, possibly causing the tear in the back of the dress she was wearing larger. She planted a kiss on his cheek before the man turned around and left.

"I'll see you later."

Sakura studied the outfit that was just given to her. After she donned it, she noticed the silk's sapphire blue was stunningly detailed, which somewhat froze her from leaving her room with it on. After all, what if it gets ruined?

"You know, from the back view, it's even better," Yuki giggled.

"What?" Sakura questioned. "Why? Is there another hole back there."

Her cousin shook her head. "Nope, don't worry about it. Anyway, we should head downstairs. I forgot to mention that everyone's waiting for us."

XxXx

Clearly the kimono Sasuke gave her was doing its job. As the pink headed girl passed her family members, each had a jaw dropping effect.

When she stood adjacent to her grandmother, Sakura pressed her lips together. "Morning, grandma." Truthfully, she didn't blame her grandma for being worrisome over ninjas, now that Sakura learned what had happened. She still wasn't sure if some of the things her grandma did were right though, but considering everything she, herself had done these past few weeks, the rosette figured it could be a compensation.

"Morning," the elder replied. "Look how cloudy it is. Such a horrible day to be going out for some festival." At least her grandmother was back to normal (still acting like nothing had ever happened).

The Haruno family were all ready, formally dressed and about to leave their home. There were plans for sightseeing and enjoying activities. The festival was going to last them the entire day, but seeing as Sakura's relatives were leaving the day after, her aunt had requested they finish the day early so that they could come back to pack.

"Oh, I'm afraid I have to leave you guys a little early. I have some work I have to do," Sakura said as she slipped her footwear on.

"But Sakura," her aunt cooed. "It's our last day! Why can't you just skip work for the day?"

She shook her head apologetically. "Sorry, it's pretty important," Sakura murmured. She tried shaking the conversation elsewhere, so she wouldn't have to explain any further. "Shall we go?"

Everyone gave a nod, following the young woman out the door. The group made their way into the village, frequently stopping by at different stands, buying treats and watching the entertainment.

"Hi, Gaara, Temari, Kankuro," Sakura greeted at the other group passing by; they said hello in response. The girl quickly noted inwardly that the kages had started arriving and maybe it was time to take her shift at the fields. Turning to her family, she said, "That was the kazekage. Considering that the kages are already arriving, I might have to leave early."

"You know the kazekage?" Yuki exclaimed, but was ignored by Sakura.

Suddenly, static noises appeared. "Sakura..Sakura!" It was Naruto through the headset. "Sakura..Sakura."

"Excuse me." She stepped to the side, leading herself behind a wall. "What?" She snapped through her microphone. There was just an hour left before the village was supposed to be really crowded, so there weren't many nearby momentarily.

"Guess who's with me? It's Hinata!" Clearly Naruto was too excited to let Sakura even guess.

"Dobe, don't get sidetracked." Sasuke was also on the other end of the receiver.

"Oh, right. We kind of need another medic here, like, desperately."

Confused, pink brows furrowed. "I'll be there, where are you?" After receiving the coordinates, Sakura hopped over to her family.

"Is something wrong?" Her uncle asked curiously.

"Yeah," Sakura replied. "I just received notice that someone's in need of a medic, so I gotta go. If I have time, I'll come find you guys, okay?"

A few members of her family gave her the signal for her to leave.

XxXx

"Oh my God." Sakura stood dumbfounded. The coordinates that Naruto had given her had led her at the border of the training fields and the village. "You look like a puffer fish. Both of you." She turned to Hinata, a beginner at healing, trying her best with Naruto's face.

"Dobe here thought he was throwing a kick ball at me, but grabbed a _bee's_ next," Sasuke growled furiously. "Behind my back."

Sakura's healing hands trailed along the pattern of the stings on the handsome man's disfigured face. "So how did Naruto end up looking like _that_ if it was aimed at you?"

Sasuke let a sigh escape his lips, as if he was tired from constantly explaining the story. "After it hit me in the back, it broke in half. So I kicked the other half back at him – ow!"

"Sorry," Sakura murmured. She looked from her fiancé to Naruto, annoyed with their immaturity. "Jeez, how you guys passed being genin, I'll never know. How could you not be able to dodge something flying at you, Sasuke-kun?"

Naruto gave a snort of laughter.

"And _you_, how could you confuse a kick ball with a bee's nest? Bee's nests aren't even round!" Sakura had spent the next half an hour yelling at her two teammates, leaving the shy healer giggling every once in a while.

"Thanks, guys!" Naruto said cheerfully. His one hand rubbed the one side of his face, less swollen than before.

"We're not going to waste all of our chakra on your faces tonight, so you're just going to have to heal on your own," Sakura explained, "And it's not as bad...it's less red than it was. And less puffy, I guess. Hey, Naruto, stop rubbing your face or else what Hinata and I did would be a waste."

The blond gave a pout. "But Sakura-chan! I heal fast, so it wouldn't matter anyway. Maybe you should be more careful of Sasuke's face or you'll end up with _that_ as a husband!" He gave a loud chuckle, grabbing onto Hinata's hand and running off.

Sakura gave a sigh. "Gosh, I hope that's not true," she muttered to herself.

"What? I thought you said that I would heal fine if I don't touch it," Sasuke exclaimed. His eyes wandered to the corner, hoping to see what his face really looked like and wishing that nothing was scarring.

The rosette gave a small grin. "Don't worry. Even if I have to drag the plastic surgeons out, your face will have to be like it used to before we get marri – "

"Oh my God, your boyfriend looks like cotton candy."

The pair turned around to see Sakura's curious (and snickering) family. "We just happened to pass by," her father muttered in the background.

Both her aunt and mother paced towards the grumbling Uchiha, studying his new face.

"Was this a ninja attack?" her aunt questioned. "Cause if it was, it must have been terrible! Don't worry, Sasuke, I have some ointment at home – although it's more for sunburns, but it looks the same, so – "

"Thanks," Sasuke angrily interrupted. "But it's okay." Getting up from the ground, he noted that the ground was a lot softer than earlier. At the moment, he wasn't sure if he should awkwardly walk off back into the village (where there are people to see him) or stay with Sakura and her family.

Suddenly, it began pouring heavily.

"Oh, don't worry. I came prepared!" Sakura's mother exclaimed, pulling out several umbrellas from her bag. She gave a smile as she passed one to her daughter, and made her way to give one to the Uchiha. "Here, Sasuk – oh my!" The umbrella dropped from her hand. "Your eyes..."

Sakura turned around at that moment, realizing that Sasuke had his sharingan activated. "What's wrong?"

Sasuke frowned. "There's chakra infused with the raindrops." He moved his hand upwards so that he could adjust the frequency of his headset, but all he could hear was static. "You should take your family back to the village. I'll go report this to the Hokage."

The girl nodded, turning around as her boyfriend left the opposite direction.

* * *

**In the beginning with the whole Sasuke giving her a kimono thing, it'll be mentioned again in a chapter or two.**

**I'm trying to really finish up this story, so things might be a little rushed. Please review.**


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: **Okay, so a few chapters back, I had asked you guys whether you had wanted a big action-filled chapter with lots of violence and the whole village being invaded thing or not. Well, _a lot_ of you spoke out and the majority winner was to have a little bit of both - not too much action, but still have a big event happening. **Erm...**Yeah, I tried that. I had it _all_ planned out and stuff, but once I started typing..I got a _little_ -cough-a lot-cough lazy. So I hope you guys aren't too disappointed with what I had done here.

But seriously. I've tried action scenes in the past. Very unsuccessful. It's better this way. Trust me.

**Ooh, another thing**: Unfortunately, this story is coming to an end within **1 or 2 chapters**. Yup. I'm planning for an end by chapter 26. Or 25 if it ends up being too short. But I've really appreciated all the support you guys have given me in the last year! Thank you guys!

**Inspiration for this chapter: **I dunno, just the fact that I really didn't want Naruto or Sasuke too be all macho-tough guy in this story. Like, its evident that we all know how strong they are and even though the action scenes aren't big, I wanted something out of it...

**XxXx**

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**XxXx**

**XxXx**

"W-What's happening?" Her mother questioned as Sakura pushed the family back into the populated area.

"Um," Sakura began, "we might or might not be under attack. I'm not so sure, but don't worry. Everything's under cont– " She was cut off by a startling scream, which caused the Haruno family to turn their heads.

"That's Ino..." Sakura recognized the shout.

The kunoichi inwardly cursed, raising her arm to turn the headset on again, but the heavy rain only made things more difficult as it was causing static. She stared directly ahead, seeing Konoha's ninja rushing to the scene where Ino's scream was located.

Suddenly, she felt a gel-like substance wrap around her legs and as she glanced down to see what it was, she felt someone grab her from behind.

"Oh, you're pretty," the low voice startled her.

Nevertheless, Sakura remained motionless, analyzing the best way to maneuver the situation – her family, however, were standing nearby in shock and unsure of what to do. Her bold green eyes looked up, trying to assure them that it was okay, but being a multitasker, she had also figured out that the rain pouring down heavily was slowly collecting at the base of her body.

"It's too bad you're taken..unless _this _– "

The girl felt a tug at the back of her neck and then heard a tear.

"– doesn't mean anything." The man whose face she still hadn't seen placed his hand in front of her face. His one hand was still gripped at the side of her neck and the other gently let the material of her collar go.

From there, the rosette could vaguely see the Uchiha symbol neatly sewn and intertwined with the Haruno's circle. Immediately, all Hell broke loose as her body's actions became a duplicate of her raging thoughts.

"You asshole!" She cursed, elbowing the man (and shocking her family with her ferocious strength).

The attack caused the man to fly back, allowing the water around her ankle to lose grip, ultimately setting her free.

"Go Sakura!" Yuki yelled from the back.

Running as quick as she could, Sakura landed a punch on the stranger. She avoided her kicks as she didn't want to damage the kimono any further.

"You jerk," she yelled with each punch. "You jackass, you kimono-murderer! _That_ was my first kimono as an Uchiha. It was pretty and sparkly!" She picked him up by the collar and threw him across the field. "It was special and you ruined it! And now all I have left is a fiancé who looks like _cotton candy_!" She never stopped whining after that nor did she stop punching the weak opponent.

XxXx

"We know already," Tsunade stated the moment Sasuke pushed the door opened. She had her head turned to the side as she was pouring an alcoholic beverage into the Raikage's glass and then onto the Mizukage's. Of course, Gaara declined his offer as well as the Tsuchikage.

"You know about the attack?" Sasuke shouted.

"Of cours– Whoa, son, what happened to your face?" The oldest looking one exclaimed, chuckling over the Uchiha's growl. "Tsunade, don't tell me this is what the people of your village generally look like." He was an older man with a barrel-like chest. From the robes he had donned, he was clearly the Mizukage.

The blonde next to him, however, suppressed the laugh. "It seems that because of the rain and the location you and Sakura were, contacting you through the headset was impossible. Nevertheless, we have been discussing this matter for a while now. It seems that all of this commotion lately was merely caused by a few idiotic bandits trying to make the Water Country look bad and all... Looks like we're not the only village with dumb ninjas."

Sasuke furrowed his brows, slowly releasing the tense in his body. "So...basically all of the meetings and warnings lately was simply a misunderstanding?" He released an annoyed sigh, frustrated with the new information.

"You see," Tsunade continued, "that one spy that we had captured earlier, well through interrogation means, it wasn't as successful as we had liked. So we tried a different approach to see if we could get him talking." She stopped to turn to the other kages. "I was telling you earlier about the boy who pretended to be drunk to tell a girl that he likes her, this is him," she said pointing to Sasuke. "Anyway, we decided to try your plan: we got him drunk."

Clearly, Sasuke wasn't as relax as the five in front of him. He stared at them blankly. "Was that when you figured his intentions?"

The Godaime shook her head. "No, we only found out that he's a horrible drunk and knocks out after half the bottle. But after the rain storm started and the Mizukage sent his own men out to see what was going on, _that_ was when we figured everything out."

"I'm afraid I must apologize. It's my fault, really," the old man stepped in, "You see, it's because of their cruel intentions that I banned them from certain things and threatened to throw them out of the village. But you shouldn't worry. There's only three of them, or so I'm aware of, though you've already captured the one.

"Those bandits don't have much strength beyond the average chuunin or genin – I'm not quite sure – so they've only mastered basic techniques to trick their enemy, hence the rain. If there are Konoha ninja out the lookout as your Hokage stated, then they'll be taken down immediately without much trouble – they're most likely trying to bully civilian families or whatever they deem they can take advantage of."

XxXx

"I suggest you stop using him as a punching bag."

Sakura turned around, gasping at the sigh of a similarly dressed man, directly behind her grandmother. His arms held tightly on her shoulder as the water molecules surrounding him encircled her family to keep them from moving.

"Grandma!" Yuki shouted. The rest of her family stood there in fear as they were so close to the situation, yet helpless.

The kunoichi did as she was told, watching her grandmother's expression mixed with shock and intense fear.

Confidently, Sakura stood straight, giving them a smug look. "Bravo, attacking an innocent old lady. Seriously, what's wrong with the world these days," she said casually. "You guys can't even invade a village without trying to hurt an innocent old lady. That's just a new low," she teased.

"Shut up!" The second attacked replied – the comment seemed to have affected him, since his grip on the woman loosened.

"Sakura, what are you doing?" Her father yelled from afar, but was visibly ignored.

Instead, the emerald eyes lowered, watching her grandma's shaking, frail hands. Sakura then glanced upwards, facing her grandmother and giving her a small, reassuring smile. Her body was equally stiff, determining the course of action, while making sure nothing would ever happen, especially to her grandmother.

Noting Sakura's confidence, the skinny hands slowly stabled, but there was still a slight tremble. The older woman's brows tilted as she could feel her heart race faster than ever. Should she really be putting all of her trust into her granddaughter? It was clear earlier that Sakura could handle that other man, but what about the one holding her captive? Her thoughts were enough to fill an ocean as she gently nibbled onto her rouge lips.

"Grandma," Sakura murmured. She didn't say anything else after that, but the tug on her lips stayed in place.

The old woman opened her mouth, hoping words would come out, but the only voices came from her family on the side, yelling at Sakura to take some sort of action. Either way, the dull eyes continued to stare back at the apple-green eyes as if they connected somehow. Suddenly, her left hand reached into the sleeve of her kimono.

Studying her grandmother's moves, Sakura spoke up, "Say, why are you attacking my innocent family anyway? Do you need money or something? Girlfriend broke up with you?"

The man growled, planning to reach inside his holster for a weapon of some sort. "Why you," he managed to threaten.

Sakura's words were held back. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did your _boyfriend_ break up with you?"

As the man was being distracted, Sakura's grandmother grabbed onto a foreign object, hidden inside a sewn pocket of her dress. As quick as she could, the woman used the opportunity to turn as much as she could, pressing onto the nozzle of the pepper spray.

"Damn it!" The man lifted both arms to cover his stinging eyes.

With him distracted, Sakura leapt towards him, knocking him out with a single punch.

* * *

Please review, guys!


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N:** Um, yeah, sorry about the incredibly late update. The memory stick where I had saved all of my fanfics stopped working for some reason, so that kinda threw me off course for a few months. Nevertheless, I decided to update, and I wrote, and its a little longer, and a bit more boring, cause I'm kinda wrapping everything up, so I apologize in advance.

This is technically the last chapter, and although there is an epilogue, I'm not entirely sure when I'll have the time to write it.

**Inspiration for the chapter:** Chapter 3 of this fic. :D

**My Pretend Boyfriend**

**By: Xmarksthespot**

**Disclaimer: Don't own.**

* * *

"Are you guys okay?" Sakura asked, facing her family. She merely tossed the unconscious man to the side next to his teammate. Her eyes noticed their surprised faces, except for her grandmother's tired ones. She pulls her lips into a smile. "Good teamwork there, grandma," she softly said. Her hand then raises into the air, palm facing the older woman.

Her grandmother's eyes widen slightly, unsure of how to reciprocate the action. But after seeing Sakura's motioning hand, her mouth turned into a mere line. "You're just like a child," the woman complained, but raises her hand to give her granddaughter a high five, anyway. She immediately turned away, somewhat embarrassed.

For a moment, the pink headed girl was caught off guard, amused by her recent (although, very easy) victory. She smiled along with her family. Nevertheless, she briefly remembered about the scream not too long ago that she heard; her head quickly spun around. "Wait here. If someone suspicious comes, just back off, and call for help if you need to," she told her relatives, dashing in the direction of the scream – she was sure it was Ino's.

She quickly ran to the area, unsure whether she should be worried or not. The rain had stopped, but that might've been merely a distraction. How was she supposed to know if there were others, maybe some who were stronger, roaming the village? But by the time she reached the boarder of the village and the training fields, she ran into her best friend. "I- I heard you scream," she panted. "What happened? Did someone attack you?"

The blue eyed woman looked utterly confused, furrowing her brows at the word "attack". Biting her lip, she frustratingly said, "No, no one attacked me, but guess who I saw _clinging_ onto Shikamaru-kun – I swear, she was all over him! – by the venue?" Before she could let Sakura reply, she answered, "That sand-girl, Temari!"

Sakura furrowed her brows in disbelief, rolling her eyes afterward. She let out an exaggerated sigh, running her fingers through pink locks, and rubbed on her temples; it had been a_ long_ day. Upon turning around to find her family, Sakura could see the festival starting up again, as other shinobi were helping to fix the damages done, and alerting to pedestrians that there was nothing going on. She decided to approach one of them.

"Uh, excuse me?" She tapped on their shoulder.

The woman turned around. "Uh, yeah, could you be quick, I got a lot of work here."

Sakura nodded and said, "Yeah, I was just wondering if you know what's been going on here?"

"False alarm," the stranger informed her. "The Hokage alerted all of us through our headsets – I'm surprised you didn't get the message. There are no major attacks. Just a bunch of idiots messing around. I think someone caught them though."

Her lips parted, as she heaved a sigh of relief. "I see, thank you." She turned around to head back to her family who huddled around in an area not too far from the attackers' bodies. At the same time, her fingers fidgeted with the headset wrapped around her ear, still hearing the static sounds that escaped from it. She pulled it away from her ear.

"Sakura, how dare you leave us here with them!" Her cousin exclaimed, pointing to the unconscious men.

The pink headed girl shrugged. "You were a pretty good ninja before, Yuki. You would've been able to take care of them if they woke up. Besides, you have grandma." Sakura gave a grin before she walked over to the piece of cloth laying on the ground. Picking up the material with the Uchiha emblem sewn on, the girl inwardly sulked.

"Stupid jerk," she muttered, and continued to do so incoherently. One hand reached to the back of her head, wrapping the air that was now exposed to the nape of her neck.

"Don't worry, Sakura," a voice said.

Sakura turned around from the view of her parents to see Sasuke. "Sasuke-kun!" She exclaimed, but held onto the cloth securely in her hands so that he couldn't see. Her eyes peered upwards. "Your face..."

"The Hokage healed it."

Sakura let out a giggle, relieved to see that Sasuke's face was no longer covered in bee stings. "She couldn't stand looking at you either, huh?"

The Uchiha's eye twitched in response, turning his head to the side in embarrassment. "Hn. Tsunade and the other Kages are dealing with the situation right now, and there should be some people coming right now to take those guys away."

He walked over so that he was standing next to the girl, and carefully took the kimono's ripped pieces from her hand. "I can get you a new one. Don't worry about this."

She frowned. "But I want this one, Sasuke-kun!" She whined. "It was my first one." Her voice imitated a child's as she continued to stare at him with widened eyes and pouted lips.

"Aa, fine," Sasuke replied, shaking Sakura's hold off his arms. "I'll sew it up later tonight."

Immediately, Sasuke cursed at his words and Sakura looked at him questioningly.

"_You_ _sew_?" She blurted surprisingly. She looked over to see her family, who obviously were eavesdropping; they also were shocked. "He sews," she told them, pointing at the Uchiha. "My boyfriend – _fiancé_ – sews, and I don't even own thread." She looked back at him. "That's not right."

She could hear her cousin giggling, but ignored it.

"Please don't tell me you iron your clothes too?" Sakura asked, but when she received no reply, her mouth dropped open, and decided to walk off.

"Sakura," Sasuke called out, but she didn't turn back. "Hn, come back. This doesn't make you any less of a woman. Hey, are you listening to me?"

XxXx

"I'll get it!"

Sakura quickly rushed over to the door when it rang, making flapping noises with her bunny slippers. She jumped over the suitcases that laid out on the floor, since her relatives were leaving the next morning (it had been a few days after the festival).

When she opened it, Sasuke was revealed, holding a bouquet of flowers.

"Hn," the man grunted. "Courtesy of Ino, and Naruto. Again – I'm not the type to bring...these things." He tried to explain, and passed the flowers to Sakura.

Sakura nodded, turning her head to the side to see Ino and Naruto, whispering and giggling behind the bushes. She let out a sigh. "You'd think they'd get over this," she said, but when she saw the two blondes making hand motions, telling her to kiss him, she obeyed and did so.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "So are you going to let me in and face your family, or what?"

The rosette smiled, and moved to the side so that he could enter. Her palms began to grow sweaty, however, the moment Sasuke took off his shoes. She had a feeling that her family would just be as intense with the questions as they were the last time Sasuke was over for dinner, and this time, she was also certain that the Uchiha didn't have any responses planned out.

Quickly, Sakura closed her eyes and muttered a prayer, wishing the best of luck for Sasuke.

"Sakura, come on. Dinner's starting!"

"Coming!"

XxXx

The Harunos' and the Uchiha ate in silence, though Sasuke could tell that all eyes were aimed at him.

Sasuke was still polite as ever, pulling out the chair for his future mother-in-law, and wasn't messy when he ate.

Sakura was still amazed at this, but was also fixating on her father's intense stare.

Suddenly, said man cleared his throat, penetrating through the silence. "So, Sasuke Uchiha..." he began. "You expect me to just hand over my daughter to you... when not once did you ask me for permission to marry her." His eyes subtly leered towards his daughter when he heard her gulp, but when straight back to Sasuke's stoic face.

"Aa," Sasuke replied, pausing for a moment to come up with his response, "I apologize for the sudden turn of events, and the truth was, I wasn't really expecting to propose to her this quickly –"

"So you were thinking about it?" Sakura's uncle quickly said. "You were thinking about marrying her even when you knew it was too soon? It's what you said."

Sasuke's lips parted for a second, before he replied, "Well, the thing is –"

"You were with her for less than a month and yet you were already thinking about marriage... You guys weren't even a real couple half the time... Do you know what that says about your character, Sasuke?" It was Sakura's mother who chirped in this time. Nevertheless, the smile on her face following that clearly showed that she had already accepted the Uchiha.

Sasuke inhaled through his nose before opening his mouth again. "No, I was not thinking about marriage when I was dating her, or pretending to be dating her. However, because of some circumstances that happened – "

There was a moment when one of the members of Sakura's family tried to speak up, but Sasuke didn't allow himself to be interrupted again (Sakura was flabbergasted at the number of _actual _words that Sasuke was using in such a short period of time), " – I decided that because I am in love with Sakura, and she feels the same way towards me, that we should be engaged."

Yuki looked up from her plate. "What type of circumstances, Sasuke?"

Sakura waved her hands in the air to stop the questions. "You know what, it doesn't even matter. The point is, I am happy, and you should be too. Right?"

Her parents thought for a moment, and finally they agreed. But her family was still persistent, as her father asked, "Is she pregnant?"

Sakura interrupted. "What? Dad, no!"

"Let the boy speak, dear."

Sasuke uncomfortably sat up straight from his seat, disliking the dry taste in his mouth. Finally, he replied, "I wouldn't think so considering we haven't done anything," he promptly left out the word _'yet'_.

"Hmm..." Her father reasoned, "good answer."

The silence left rather quickly, however, as Sakura's aunt spoke up this time.

"Now work wise, are you planning to support her with your income as a ninja?"

"...Aa."

"Well, then do you realize that along with her hospital shifts, she has more jobs than you?"

"Aa, and I am going to make sure she is happy and not work so much because I know how tiring her shifts can be and because her role as my wife should not stand in the way of her life," he paused, possibly exhausted because he had reached his limit in the number of words he could say per night. "And I plan to work just as hard, if not, harder to support her and make her happy," he added.

The adults nodded, and were most likely thinking of another question.

Her father quickly finished the food off his plate, swallowing hurriedly before saying, "That was another good answer, Sasuke. It's almost as if you rehearsed this." Before Sasuke or Sakura could say anything out of that, he continued, "Now, hypothetically, if my wife and I were to move – because we are considering this – to my mother's and brother's village, how often would you visit us?"

The raven haired man sat in silence, often looking over towards Sakura in search of an answer. Finally, after receiving no answer, he said, "We would visit whenever we can, sir."

Content, they finished dinner happily, and Sasuke stood up, helping Sakura and her mother with the dishes. His eyes slowly turned to the side, however, noticing that her grandmother had been awfully quiet all night. He ignored it. Besides, he managed to hook in the majority of Sakura's family that night.

" I think us men should leave you guys and go have a beer or something," her father said, getting up. "You coming, Uchiha?" The tone in his voice hinted that Sasuke _should_ get up.

"Aa," Sasuke responded, getting up from his seat. He threw Sakura a look, wondering if she knew what her father and uncle were up to

She shrugged, only knowing that the male figures in her family had more questions to ask him.

XxXx

"Hn, Mr. Haruno," Sasuke spoke up, following the two older men, "I was wondering where you're taking me?" His hands were shoved in his pockets as his eyes scanned the area – he wasn't too familiar with the area.

The older man looked back at him, and grinned slyly. "Please, call me _dad_. After all, you're marrying my daughter, right?"

Sasuke stared directly at him, but didn't say anything. He continued to move his eyes from side to side, in search for any familiar buildings. But there wasn't. It was a dark and suspicious looking area with few men roaming the streets and many empty alcoholic bottles lying on the floors. Surely the Haruno's didn't hire an assassin to kill him, right?

"We're here," stated Sakura's uncle.

The Uchiha looked up, and his eyes widened. From the entrance, he could see Naruto's head as well as a few others through the window. The neon signs were blinding, and the music was nauseating.

"Think of it as an early bachelor party."

"What?" Before Sasuke could say anything further, he felt a slight push from the two men behind him, forcing him to enter the building where he was greeted by several others – obviously Kakashi was early on purpose.

"I'd rather not –"

"Teme! Come on, there's a few girls here waiting for you!"

"We're going to get drunk tonight!"

"Here are your dollar bills!"

XxXx

Sakura timidly looked at her grandma, eating her mother's dessert in the meantime. "So... now that we had a real dinner with him, what did you think?" She began, stretching her arms out.

Yuki rolled her eyes. "Well obviously we like him. I actually don't see a point to this dinner anyway."

Her mother and aunt nodded agreeably, but Sakura focused her attention to her grandma.

The old woman sighed, pressing her bright red lips together, and tucked silver strands of hair behind her ear. Following that, she crossed her arms and looked back up at her granddaughter, knowing that the patient girl had been waiting for her to talk all night. Finally, she managed to pull her lips upwards.

"Even if he is a ninja, and even if you are one too..." She began, and sighed before saying, "I'm content with whatever you do as long as it makes you happy."

The kunoichi gave a bright smile. "Thanks."

"Also," her grandmother said, "apologize to him for me. For before -- what I've said in the past. I don't think I'll get a chance tonight to tell him."

Sakura nodded. "Yeah, of course."

XxXx

"I'm leaving."

The blond next to him quickly dragged the Uchiha by the hem of his shirt. "You haven't even been in here for ten seconds yet, teme! It's your bachelor party. Do you know how long it took for me and Kakashi-sensei to convince Sakura's dad to bring you here tonight?"

Sasuke growled. "Gee, thanks," he said sarcastically. He looked up from the glass table that sat in front of him, to see several women dancing on the stages. Quickly shutting his eyes from the view, he muttered incoherent curses to himself. "Go do whatever you want. I'm fine with sitting here." He leaned back on his seat, grabbing a drink in the process and continued to stare at the floors.

Releasing a sigh from his lips, Naruto eventually gave up and joined the others nearby at the stage.

"Aren't you going to join them?" It was Sakura's father.

"Hn."

The man sat down next to Sasuke, grabbing a beer and gulping half of the drink down his throat. "Is it because I'm here?"

Without thinking, Sasuke immediately said, "No." He could feel the older man grin.

"This is supposed to be a bachelor party, and yet it seems your friends are the ones who are enjoying it.".

Sasuke didn't speak up, and his fingers gripped tightly around the bottle. He was continuously reminded by the setting the reason why he proposed to Sakura so quickly in the first place. He never liked places like these, degrading women to their lowest points, and exposing men's weaknesses. He brought the bottle to his lips again, ignoring the loud music and the chatter in the background. He never wanted Sakura to come to a place like this.

"Take good care of Sakura, okay?

"Aa," the Uchiha merely said, getting up. Before anyone could stop him, he left the building.

XxXx

She quickly opened the door when she heard the doorbell ring. She wrinkled her nose at the smell coming from him. "Where did you go? You reek!" She teased, but placed her lips on his anyway.

"Your father and uncle took me out for a few drinks," Sasuke replied. His eyes drooped low, gazing back at Sakura's green ones; clearly, he was exhausted.

The girl led him out of her house, and the two sat on the porch. She let his head lean on her shoulders. "Is there something you want to say, honey?" She grinned again, noticing his flinch at the nickname.

His head perked up, and despite the alcoholic smell coming from his mouth, he leaned in. "I'm glad your family came, and I'm glad you kissed me."

Sakura smiled, nodded in agreement. "My grandma says she likes you, by the way." Even in the night sky, she could see him smirking. "Of course, I like you more."

Suddenly, their lips met, and it wasn't until Sasuke pulled away, that he said, "I'm glad you're going to be my real wife soon, Sakura."

"Me too, Sasuke-kun."

-

-

Fin.

* * *

A/N: I'd just like to say, thank you for all of your reviews, author favorites, favorite story, and story alerts. All of them meant everything to me! Of course, there is still one chapter left (the epilogue), and it won't be as long as this, but I'll still try to write it and post it as quickly as I can.

I know this chapter isn't as funny as the earlier chapters, but all the support you give me is still great!

P.S. I posted this chapter as soon as I finished typing it, so I apologize if there are a lot of errors!

Please review! :D


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N:** I originally planned this chapter, being the epilogue and all, to be pretty short. Well, it's actually one of the longer chapters (not that its still very long anyway).

I actually only had the last part of this chapter planned out for the entire epilogue, but then I started to get really into the beginning, so I ranted more there than in the end.

**Inspiration for this final chapter:** The fact that not all lies end badly. I mean, most do. It's just these rare cases that they end up...pretty well. Oh, and my allergies too.

* * *

XxXx

He stared impatiently at the saddened girl, whose puppy dog eyes glistened dangerously, possibly trying to find a method for him to agree with her. But he was used to this, and he was strong, and he would _not _give in, because he _knows_ that he is right and logical.

"Sakura, I'm not waiting until _after_ we get married to start living with you. Think of it as camping," he added, as if the last bit of information would help him.

The girl rolled her eyes unreasonably."I don't care. We were kids before, and that camping trip was with the team. _This_? This is adult. It'll just be us two, and I don't think I'm ready for that sort of commitment." Sakura crossed her arms and pouted – it usually worked against the Uchiha.

"Hn, you agreed to _marry_ me, which technically means, agreeing to move in." He sighed tiredly, glancing towards the clock to see how long they had been arguing about the topic.

The young woman shrugged, hearing herself let out an exhale. "No it doesn't!" She whined. "Just because most people move in within the time period of the wedding, doesn't mean _I_ have to. I mean, can't we just be married for like, a year or so, before I move in?"

Sasuke stared at her in disbelief.

"Come on, I just want some time to get used to things. I mean, we've only been dating for like, four months... Let's not rush things."

"Sakura, the wedding is in three weeks."

She stared at him, blinking several times before she exclaimed, "_What_?" She paused for a moment, letting the newfound information soak in. Of course she had been planning, but she had been so busy planning, she completely forgot about the actual event.

"Sakura?"

"I NEED TO CALL INO TO GET THE FLOWER ARRANGEMENTS READY!"

**My Oh-So Real Husband**

**(My Pretend Boyfriend - Epilogue)**

Sasuke stared at the photograph that was between his fingers for the longest time. There was something about it that just didn't seem right – wasn't this _Itachi's _baby picture? Where in the world did Sakura get it, and _why_?

"Sakura... your phone is ringing," he called out, not bothering to lift his sight from the picture. In the background, he could hear his fiancée talking on the phone with someone he could only assume to be her father – the man had been calling a lot more frequently now that he and his wife were living with her other relatives and that Sasuke was at the Haruno house more often.

It was then that Sasuke got up from his crouched position, heading towards Sakura's desk to pick up the pile of textbooks she had to put them away in the boxes. However, when he lifted them from the table, another photo slipped out.

He furrowed his brows in confusion and looked up the moment he saw Sakura.

"Do you have some sick, secret crush for my brother or something?" He stuck his arm out so that the photo was directly in front of her face.

Just as confused as he was, Sakura took another look at the photo. Shaking her head, she responded, "What are you talking about? That's you, isn't it?"

The Uchiha pulled his arm back immediately to take another look at the picture, observing it. He looked at the detailing of the toddler's facial expressions, the hair, and the condition the photo was in to determine the age of the picture. "Hn, this is Itachi, idiot."

Sakura frowned, grabbing it from Sasuke's hands. "Are you serious? I paid big bucks for this picture!"

"What?"

"Hey, you couldn't tell who it was either!" She angrily marched over to the box that was labeled 'Photos' and pulled out a flowery, beaded album. "Don't tell me all of these are Itachi's baby pictures..." She muttered, sighing to herself.

Feeling a shiver down his spine, Sasuke slowly sat down by Sakura to look at her collection from when she was a fangirl – or so he hoped it was from back then and not recently. He watched as she flipped through the pages, and felt his palms growing sweaty as he found pictures of himself that he never knew were taken.

"That top left one, the middle and the top right are Itachi's... The rest are mine..." His voice trailed off. "Who did you get these from again?"

The fairytale haired girl shrugged, muttering something about a person in a dark alleyway. Heaving an exhausting sigh, she dropped the book back down into the box. "We should be done packing by tomorrow morning. After, we can just call Naruto and his clones to bring all of this to your place."

"Aa."

Suddenly, the phone rang again.

"Hn, it's your father," Sasuke guessed, rolling his eyes. He rested his back against the headboard as Sakura went to pick the phone up.

"Hello?" She pulled the phone away from her ear for a moment. "It's my grandmother," she muttered to the man, whose eyes showed that he was half asleep.

"If she's asking when we're visiting again," he murmured, "Tell her we visited last week, and we'll visit again when we're free."

Sakura shushed him, continuing her conversation with the older woman. Her fingers played with the cord as she leaned against the pale walls; her stance suggested that she was thinking of something else rather than focusing attention on her call.

"What's that grandma?" She asked. "Yeah, of course we'll visit before the wedding!" She said casually, ignoring Sasuke's stern face. "Yup, after our honeymoon too."

"Are you listening to what you're promising?" Sasuke whispered over, only to be waved off by her.

"Okay, grandma, bye!" Sakura promptly hung up the phone, only to go back into her room to finish packing.

"I think I liked it better when she wasn't talking to me," Sasuke admitted. "Now she's inviting us over weekly."

The woman shrugged. "She's family, and she understands that we both have jobs, so it'll be okay if we don't make it all the time." She burrowed through a pile of clothes and boxes within her closet. "Now," she began, as she pulled out a largely decorated frame that was approximately half her size, "_this_ picture is of you, right?"

XxXx

"What do you have written for your vow, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked, sitting at the kitchen table. Her fingers played with a pen and the piece of paper she had planned to write her vows in was now folded into an origami crane.

"Hn. Stuff."

Curious, Sakura got up to stand outside the bathroom. "What kind of stuff?" She said loudly so he could hear her through the running water.

"Aren't you supposed to wait until the wedding to hear this?"

The woman thought for a moment, before saying, "Does this mean you don't have it written either?"

There was a pause.

"Aa."

XxXx

He rose a brow.

Sasuke couldn't help but feel that their wedding was _very _floral. As he stared down the aisle, he noted the dark pink lily strapped to each bridesmaid's hair, the variations of flowers strapped to the end of each bench, the wallpaper's designing and the flower petals laid out neatly on the floor they were standing on.

It was pretty obvious who the maid of honor was, seeing as the Uchiha didn't have to pay much for the plants.

"Well you're marrying someone who's named after a flower anyway, so don't you think you should've seen this coming?" Sasuke remembered Naruto telling him just minutes before the ceremony started.

However, as he waited for the final bridesmaid to head down the aisle, followed by Sakura and her father, he couldn't help but twitch his nose – maybe he should've told Sakura to get fake flowers.

He felt one of his groomsmen breathe on his neck as they whispered, "Uchiha, stop touching your nose. It looks like you're picking it from our view."

"Shut up, Hyuuga," the groom muttered, holding his stiff posture and staring back down the aisle at the large cathedral doors.

Sasuke felt like everyone, especially Sakura's family who sat at the very front, staring at him, even though most people's eyes were attentively waiting for the woman to enter the room.

Suddenly, the orchestra began the moment the bride stepped into the room, elegant as always. Her hair, free from any lose strands, was held back into a bun, which was secured by a simple ribbon that had the Uchiwa Fan symbol clipped in the center. She was donned in a strapless, lacy, A-line dress, and her one arm was wrapped with her father's, while the other held a bouquet that was beautifully arranged.

Sasuke had never seen anyone more beautiful. In the back of his head, he had secretly hoped that no one could tell how nervous he was, could see him gulping or fidget with his hands. It wasn't that he was scared of marrying Sakura, it was just the fact that _he_ was getting married – receiving the happy life he never realized he would get.

"Hi!" Sakura said excitedly the moment she stood across from him at the front of the aisle. She grinned widely and immediately grabbed hold of his hands.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, and both turned to the minister, who began.

When it was time to begin the vows, the minister looked at the couple, who were equally confused – who starts first?

"Uh,"

"I–"

The two stammered, staring at each other awkwardly, before Sasuke spoke up again. "You go first," he said, and received a smile.

"Ah-hem," Sakura cleared her throat nervously. Her smile was still plastered on her flushing face as she parted her lips to begin, "Sasuke-kun," she paused as if trying to remember what she rehearsed the past few nights, "My first crush was with you – I was probably four. My first love was obviously you, and my first kiss as well."

She stopped, blushing from embarrassment, and she pressed her lips together when she heard the others chuckling in the background. Turning to the side to a grumbling older man, she said, "Don't worry, Dad, that was the last part on the list, we haven't had any other firsts yet," she laughed before continuing on with her vow.

"So I just want to say that I promise that I'll learn to decode your hidden messages, with your _Aa_'s and your _Hn_'s, and to only use my super-human strength when we're training or when we're having an argument. Sasuke-kun, I promise to love you every single day, even when you're being an ass, or even when a better looking guy comes along. I promise to love you until the end of time."

There was a deep silence that took place after, and Sasuke wasn't sure when he was allowed to begin his vow.

Finally, he allowed his voice to slip through. "Sakura." He stopped talking and found himself searching in Sakura's curious eyes for the vows. "I..." He paused again, but this time, his nose began twitching again.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked worriedly.

"I...I...Ah-choo!" The man sneezed loudly. He nervously looked up to see the bride's furious expression, wiping her own face. "Damn it," he muttered, standing back up straight and then using the sleeve of his tuxedo to clean her face. He gave her an apologetic look, hoping to reverse the look on her face that read: _If there weren't people here right now, I'd punch you._

After a few chuckles, the entire building went silent again for the Uchiha to begin his vow.

"Sakura, my entire life has been serious. My family was strict with me, my teachers had high expectations of me, and I've made some choices that would've ruined my life. But you were always there to make things better.

"Going into this marriage, I'm confident, because I know that you're going to always be there, and no matter how serious life gets, you are the one person I can be completely stupid with.

"I agree to be your husband, in sickness or in health, on battlefields, in the hospital, or at the ramen stand, as long as we both shall live."

The two exchanged rings following that, and the crowd went into applause the moment Sakura received her first kiss with Sasuke as a married couple. Of course, Sasuke hurriedly left the alter before he sneezed on his new wife again, and the bridesmaids and groomsmen quickly took down the floral decorations as a request from Sakura who didn't want to be sneezed on again.

That night, Sakura shared her first dance with him, who was a surprisingly better dancer than she was.

Of course, Naruto and a bunch of others had a dance routine ready in which someone dressed in a ramen-cup costume came in to dance in the center of the dance floor and Kakashi took Sasuke aside to share bedroom secrets, which the Uchiha promptly decided he didn't need to hear.

The other Uchiha, however, stepped to the corner of the room where her grandmother stood. She smiled sweetly at the older woman. "You're not into loud music?" She asked.

Sakura's grandmother's rouge lips curved upwards slightly. "It's fine."

The pink haired woman laughed. "I just want to say: thanks." She turned to face the older Haruno, grabbing hold of both of the woman's fragile hands. "If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't have ever imagined a life like this."

Embarrassed, Sakura's grandmother let go of her granddaughter's hands and said, "Your husband's waiting to dance with you again. You better go." Nevertheless, a smile appeared on her proud face, tearing up as she watched the bride step away.

XxXx

"It's your mother," Sasuke held the phone out for his wife. About half a year had passed since their wedding, and it seemed that he was visiting his in-laws more often than he was training, despite them living in a whole separate village.

At first, he thought it was just him: unaccustomed to family outings and such, but studying the look plastered on Sakura's face lately, he knew that she was just as annoyed at her constant interruptions of her new life.

"Hi, mom," Sakura said, pinching the device between the side of her head and shoulders; she was washing the mountain of dishes because of Sasuke's failed attempts to cook. "No, nothing has changed since the last time you called...this morning. Um," the woman turned the tap off and raised her voice so that Sasuke would hear, "Auntie and uncle are asking when we're visiting again? Grandma too?"

She momentarily pulled the phone away from her ear and mouthed words to Sasuke: What do I say?

Sasuke's eyes widened and he dropped the papers in his hands. He quickly head over to Sakura and whispered, "Tell her we have missions."

The kunoichi placed the phone back onto her ear again. "Can't mom, Sasuke and I have missions. Uh huh...yeah...Oh, so you've talked to Tsunade already? She gave us the day off?" Her voice was filled with false excitement as she looked back at Sasuke again.

_What do I say?_ She mouthed, only to hear him say: "Lie".

Through the pause, the couple tried to come up with excuses, by means of whispering them to one another. After they heard her mom's questioning voice, Sakura finally took in a deep breath and said the first thing that she could think of.

"I can't travel mom. I'm pregnant."

"What?" Sasuke exclaimed (in a whispering manner). "You can't lie about that!" He could hear the screams on the other side of the phone, followed by a series of congratulations from the rest of the in-laws.

"Don't pack, Sakura. Your grandmother, aunt, uncle, cousin, your father and I will come right away to visit! We can't wait to see the new edition to the family!" The voice sang before a click was heard.

The nervous girl slowly placed the phone down before she turned to face her frustrated husband. "Um...So, Sasuke-kun, you don't think we could fake a pregnancy, do you?"

The man stood in silence for a while, lost in his thoughts. His dark hair hovered over his eyes and his stance was still. Finally, his head shot up, leaned in towards his wife with his signature smirk. "You know, it doesn't have to be fake."

XxXx

XxXx

_It may've been fake at first, but this is real now._

_I'm excited to see how our story turns out._

* * *

**A/N:** Good or bad, long or short, I appreciate every single one of your comments and criticisms. Over the past two years (Oh my gosh, has it been that long?) I was further motivated to write, only because of you guys, and I thank you for that! This is the second multi-fic story that I've actually finished since I started fanfiction when I was twelve years old, and I'm so proud of that! I just hope that you'll continue to read my other stories, and encouraging me like you do for this so that I can become a better writer!

**Edit:**

**06/08/10**

**Sequel?** Many of you have been asking me about this, and for now, I'm unfortunately going to have to say no. I still have around fifty plus stories (all oneshots, hahaha, except for maybe one or two) that I have planned and want to post up (eventually), and I still have other stories that I still need to update. Starting a new one will just make things more complicated. I mean, I'll probably update once or twice a year. Hahaa, I'm serious. So unless I suddenly have this burst of inspiration where I start writing like crazy, I'm afraid there will be no sequel.


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